DC Council Chairman and presumptive mayor-elect Vincent Gray led a meeting that discussed issues that face the youth of the city and the programs that help them succeed on Oct. 9, 2010.
The Committee of the Whole hosts a meeting on the first Saturday of every month to allow the council to get a youthful perspective in issues that directly affect them such as education, safety, employment, housing and economic development. October’s meeting brought in panels from different youth programs from around the district to testify about how their group has a positive impact on the community.
Gray asked the different panels about their opinions on how they think the problems young people encounter should be fixed and how effective the programs available today are.
“Its an opportunity for young people to connect with the leaders of the city,” said Gray.
City Year was the first group to discuss their program with Grey. Nadia Purvis, 19, represented City Year, a group that provides tutors, mentors, and role models to help kids stay in school. Grey discussed the quality of DC’s schools with Purvis who transferred from the public school Amidon Elementary to KIPP a local charter school that has longer school days.
“I was bored, hey weren’t giving me the individual support that I needed to succeed,” said Purvis.
Gray said the proposed a bill that would extend the school day in DC public schools. Purvis said she thought the extension on the school day is a good idea to keep kids on track because five pm is about the time parents arrive home to supervise their kids.
“It would certainly give a chance for our young people to receive more instruction,” said Gray.
Gray asked what Purvis thought a good tactic was to get adults to step up and serve as role models for students. Purvis said encouraging parents to partake in their kids after school programs is a good way to help kids make the most of their schooling.
The second panel had members of Time Dollar Youth Court, a program that provides alternative sentencing to first-time juvenile and serves as a unique pre-petition diversion program for non-violent offenders. TDYC said their goal is to divert offenders, ages 13–17, away from the juvenile justice system and provide an alternative to the traditional format in juvenile cases.
The most of the representatives of TCYC personally participated in the program and said it helped them turn their lives around.
“ Because of youth court I’m up for a full scholarship to college,” said Lamar Peterson, 17, who sent to the program after an altercation at school and continues to volunteer. “I learned a lot, it improved my leadership skills.”
Gray said he was happy that programs such as youth courts are available to give kids that find themselves in trouble a second chance.
I Am… We Are, a community service based group told Gray about their efforts to clean up the community and draw awareness to voter registration. Gray asked why voter registration was important to the group.
“It is a positive impact, we remind people who are registered to vote to vote and those who aren’t registered to sign up,” said Darius Grey, 12, a member of the group if you don’t vote it can be a dramatic change in what happens.”
Grey asked the group what the youth could do to encourage more people to vote. “I think asking people why they don’t vote and doing what were doing handing out flyers and stuff should help,” said DeAndre Lee, 14.
The group is working to put more pressure on their peers to recycle.
“We need to give back to what the earth needs so it can give back to what people need,” said Hebron Adenew, 9, an active member.
The DSK Mariam Youth Group discussed how they are working to be a positive influence for kids. They are reaching out to the youth mentoring kids who need role models. They group said they work to help the children with school work in addition to helping them by being a spiritual mentor that crates a safe place for young people to go for guidance.
“If we could get youth around the city to get to recreation centers I think it would be a great way to reach out to kids,” said Younesse Mekonnen, a group mentor.
The group has over 100 college students involved with the program
“Its nice because they give you a family to go back to every week,” Said Mekonnen.
The final group to speak was the Sasha Bruce Youth Group, which is a group that also mentors but is strictly for females.
“ I haven’t really figured out how I’m going to do this with the young people at the next level, we might be able to help people with town hall meetings we’ll hear from them answer questions but the most important thing for them to see is that there is someone who is listening and will help them find solutions,” said Gray.
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