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| New Haven Independent - "They Want To Talk About Turf Wars"by Melissa Bailey Aldermen who held an open youth forum were surprised when a flood of pre-teens and younger kids poured in. And they were more surprised when those kids, some as young as 6 or 7 years old, opened their mouths. "I expected them to talk about playgrounds," said Alderman Jorge Perez. "They want to talk about turf wars!" Older teens voiced age-old requests for after-school programs and jobs, but as they took the rare chance to address the board of aldermen, they hoped for some "action" as a result. Thursday's forum in the cafeteria of Career High School was sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute, an undergraduate think tank at Yale, and the aldermanic Youth Services Committee. Perez said it was the first time he could remember in 18 years that students held a youth forum before an aldermanic body. Aldermen, parents, and activists came ready to listen. The buzzing crowd of youth, from 6 to 20 years old, was hard to count — starting at roughly 100, it bulged and spun as students whizzed between brainstorming groups, art displays, and pizza. Asked what problems face city kids, the youngest were the first to blurt out answers: "People smoking and getting shot!" "Turf wars!" "People jumping each other!" Later, they offered steady advice on how to solve these problems. One group of under-15-year-olds (pictured at top) picked turf wars as their most pressing concern. They gave solutions: "Getting to know each other. Be a leader, not a follower. Stop all gangs." Jaquan Simmons, age 10, said gang members just need to be talked to. "And they might change and their life would become better." "We need to get together, like this, right here," he said, gesturing to the room full of people, "and just stop doing stuff, violent stuff." Aldermen were blown away. "I'm surprised at the age of the kids that are exposed to this violence," said Alderwoman Bitsie Clark, who chairs the aldermanic Youth Committee. "It was amazing to me." Clark called their message a "wake-up call for social workers and the school system." Graviel Martinez, 17, said cars careen too fast past his home in the Hill, on Stevens Street. He'd like to see speed bumps, as well as a park or basketball courts. His group had a message for police: Stop racial profiling and using mace illegally. As for jobs? "More information on jobs and how to get there." And a career day "where adults can talk to kids about what to do, what they need to know." And more money for programs like Ring One, which takes city kids off the streets into the boxing ring. Other groups revealed the same, age-old desires: More after school programs. A solution for teen pregancy. Summer jobs. Sports and a community center. Jordan Ringwood (pictured), a freshman at Hillhouse High School, said her group longed for "a building, like a place where we could go after school." For "sports, dancing, swimming and art." She knew the request was nothing new. "I've heard these ideas before, but we just need to act on them, instead of just saying them." Parents agreed, with fervor. "What are we going to do to move forward?" asked one parent. Organizers replied: continue the dialogue with youth. "So we're going to basically have more dialogue before we get to action?" came the incensed reply. "For years, the kids have been saying they need jobs, they need after-school programs, they need more recreation," jumped in Barbara Fair. "We need less talk and more action!" "Yeah — We need more parents like that!" called out a high-school boy. In a separate interview, Bitsie Clark outlined how the dialogue would enact change. "It prevents us from making decisions ourselves about what kids need." It also informs the budget, she said. And most concretely: Aldermen will soon decide how to use $1 million from the sale of the Water Pollution Control Authority. The sum has been earmarked as part of a larger citywide youth initiative. The Youth Committee hasn't talked about where the million dollars will go, but Perez suggested it might be broken up into neighborhood mini-grants to enhance youth programs like LEAP. Click here to read the article from the New Haven Independent's website.
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