RAINIER BEACH - Responding to a recent spike in youth-related crime in Rainier Beach, the city of Seattle is partnering with various outreach programs to create employment and activity "strategies" for students during the long summer break.
"There were some troubling things happening in the Rainier Beach neighborhood this spring," Nickels said in a press conference last Wednesday at Rainier Beach Cultural Center, "so we joined with the community to create opportunities to engage teens in the neighborhood, help them learn new skills, earn a few bucks and have fun all summer long."
Offering everything from arts projects and academic tutoring, to on-the-job training in such fields as forest enhancement and event planning - some of them paying a flat fee of up to $900 - the so-called Rainier Beach Youth Summer Strategy is an investment by the city of more than $250,000 seeking to get teens off the streets and into productive, goal-oriented activities while school is out.
Noting that "law enforcement is not the only solution" to teen delinquency, Nickels said the city is committed to engaging the community's help in giving teens viable alternatives to criminal activities. "We're going to be working hard this summer to make sure that teens here in the Rainier Beach neighborhood are actively engaged," the mayor said, adding that "summer should not be a waste of time" for youth.
Nickels said the city would be providing job opportunities for up to 60 Rainier Beach youth, along with offering a "safe place" to hang by expanding nighttime hours at the community center on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. To this end, the city has committed an additional $16,700 to expand the Late Night Program at Rainier Beach Cultural Center.
Additionally, the city awarded more than $70,000 in Neighborhood Matching Grants to such programs as the Rainier Valley Youth project, which engages up to 10 teens in developing a plan for valley residents confronted with an emergency. Other programs receiving such funding include the Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition, the Rainier Commons Trellis project, the Hip Hop and Debate project and the MESA Men project, which provides mentoring and academic tutoring for at-risk youth.
One of the challenges faced by the Youth Summer Strategies program is recruiting teens away from the lure of street life and criminal activities. According to Gregory Davis of the Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition, one of the ways program leaders build credibility and accountability is by hitting the streets to talk to kids about the summer program.
"We're talking about appealing to some of the basic instincts," Davis said, adding that his approach is not to preach but to give teens an outlet for their energies by offering them a way to have an impact in the community. "They'll have their opportunity to hang out, but with a little different purpose," he explained.
"Leadership is key," said Willie Austin, a former University of Washington football player and co-founder of the Austin Foundation. Austin, who teaches at-risk youth about health, fitness and leadership, said it's important that programs work to empower teens.
"It's a powerful thing to know about your health," he said, adding that because teens tend to have a better rapport with their peers than adults, health and safety awareness provide an effective way for youth to help others around them. "Man, they jump to that," Austin said. "We've had awesome success."
Cortez Buckner, a senior at Rainier Beach High School who Nickels referred to as "a great role model," has participated in the Summer Strategies program since his freshman year. Buckner admitted to getting into some trouble growing up ("Who didn't?" he said), but that turned around when he was introduced to the summer program by a counselor at school.
"Money is something that I wanted at that time," he joked about the opportunity to earn an income during the summer.
Buckner said a lot of the gang-banging that goes on among teens - "selling drugs, slapping girls," is how he defined the lifestyle - is influenced by the media, and that the city's program offers a safe and rewarding alternative to the high-stakes life of crime.
"It's really taken a lot of kids off of the streets and put their heads in the books," he said, adding that "it also gets you a job over the summer."
The idea, he said, it "to give teens some tools" that will help them down the road, explained Buckner, who will start college next fall.
"The fact of the matter is, this is going to help you out in the future," he said.
Along with the planned employment, recreation and education programs, the Seattle Police Department will step up targeted bike and emphasis patrols throughout the Rainier Beach community during the summer months, as well as maintaining a higher visibility in business districts and "hot spots" in the area.
The Rainier Beach Summer Strategy program will focus on youth in the area bounded by South Othello Street on the north, the city limits to the south, Martin Luther King Jr. Way on the west and Seward Park Avenue on the east.
For businesses or community groups wishing to help further with the summer program, or Rainier Beach youth wishing to participate, contact the city of Seattle's Haddis Tadesse at 684-8119.
Associate editor Rick Levin may be reached via mageditor@nwlink.com or at 461-1284.
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