Councilman Gray Holds Youth Oversight Hearing

City Council Meeting October 9, 2010

Micah Deligdish

City Council Chairman Vincent Gray held a hearing about youth mentorship programs in the schools of DC yesterday afternoon. Representatives from each mentorship program presented their program’s mission statement and discussed their programs’ goals and accomplishments with Gray.

Chairman Gray holds youth oversight meetings like this one every first Saturday of the month in order to get a perspective on the youth of D.C. public schools. In attendance of the hearing were five youth mentorship programs, their families, and their supporters in the community.

Among the mentorship programs was City Year, I AM... We Are, DSK Mariam Youth Group, and Time Dollar Youth Court.

City Year is a civic engagement group where 17-24 year olds pledge a year of community service. The leaders are united with DC schoolchildren through tutoring, mentoring, afterschool programs and summer camps. The goal of City Year is to keep children in school and engage them in the community.

“I deferred my acceptance to Lafayette College for a year so that I could do City Year,” City Year representative Nadia Purvis said.

Gray was impressed by Purvis’s dedication to the program and commended her for her service.

“It’s almost even greater than a college education being with City Year,” Gray said.

Chairmen Gray grew up and attended D.C. Public Schools, and has made public education reform a priority of his chair position.

“There is no greater priority…than ensuring that our children receive a quality education that prepares them for the modern-day workforce,” Gray said.

Among the education reforms discussed was the change to a longer school day for D.C. public schools. Purvis transferred from a public school to a charter school where the school day ran until 5 p.m.

“I think [the longer day] is a great idea,” Purvis said. “It would allow for more instruction [and] more time for that instruction would be good.”

According to Chairman Gray, keeping kids in school longer would keep them off the streets and out of trouble. After school programs and sport events held right after school would also help.

Another mentorship program in attendance at the hearing provides assistance to students who have gotten into trouble. Time Dollar Youth Court provides alternative sentencing to first-time juvenile offenders. Peer-to-peer mentoring and mock courts are among the programs participants attend.

“The mission of the program is to restore youth where they made bad decisions and help put them back on track,” Youth Court representative Geraldine Martin said.

One of the Youth Court representatives had actually been through the program, and was proof that it could help. After getting into a fight at his high school, Lamar Peterson, 17, became involved in Youth Court.

“Because of youth court I’m up for a full scholarship to college,” Peterson said.

Chairman Gray’s interactions with the representatives of these programs encouraged those at the hearing that their participation was helping reform the city’s public school system.

“It’s almost as if we’ve become a society where the government has to do everything for us just because we pay taxes,” Gray said. “But the taxpayers are the ones who own the streets.”

Chairman Gray continued to show his support for these programs by inviting them to future youth oversight hearings and encouraging them to stay involved.

“How can we get adults to step up and beyond to be role models?” Gray asked.

The meeting was successful in bridging the gap between the grassroots civilians and policy makers. Gray was supportive and engaging of the panelists. Youth oversight hearings give perspective to what is really going on with youth in the D.C. public school system, and how the government can help.