A meeting between Boston City Councilors and Boston anti-violence organizations was cut short yesterday after representatives from an important organization missed an initiative discussion.
Boston TenPoint Coalition, an ecumenical group focused on helping troubled youth, did not appear as scheduled to discuss the StreetSafe Boston initiative for young people. Although The Boston Foundation’s Vice President for Program Robert Lewis Jr. still presented the StreetSafe program in detail, no plans were finalized as to how the agencies will work with the city of Boston to ensure the initiative’s success.
TBF launched StreetSafe in December 2008 to target youth violence in areas with a high incidence of it, according to the StreetSafe website. The five-year, $26 million initiative targets people ages 16 to 24 who are ‘most at risk for committing violent offenses.’
City Councilor Chuck Turner (Roxbury) said he was frustrated and disappointed that the meeting was postpone, but said it was necessary.
‘TenPoint Coalition is at the heart of the coordination,’ Turner told attendees afterwards.’ He said it was essential to ‘make sure all voices are heard for the full picture.’
City Councilor-At-Large Stephen Murphy opened the hearing by commending TBF for reducing violence around the city and surrounding areas.
Turner also said there has been a significant decrease in homicides related to youth-violence from 75 percent to 64 percent since 2005.
‘We do see significant change, but the continuous concern and issues of youth violence is seen in homicides, thefts, assaults,’ he said. ‘It’s a persistent problem,’
City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) said StreetSafe stresses education and career building for young people who have doubts about their future.
‘Our job is to nurture and point [young people] in the right direction so they have a future,’ Yancey said.
Lewis said StreetSafe’s two main strategies include providing more TenPoint street workers to interact with the young people and adding more active service agencies along targeted streets in Roxbury and Dorchester.
The street workers are meant to interact with young people and encourage them to participate in events put on by agencies such as Inquilinos Boricuas en Acci’oacute;n in the South End, YMCA in Roxbury and the Holland Community Center, Lewis said.
‘Harvard research has shown that 1 percent of the youth account for over 50 percent of youth violence,’ Lewis said.
StreetSafe was designed to build upon the Boston’s Violence Intervention and Prevention initiative, he said.
Turner said the purpose of the hearing was to discuss the potential of ‘a variety of forces working together to lessen the impact of violence across the city and state.’
‘ ‘That is unprecedented, that three different entities come together in one strategy,’ Lewis said.
However, councilors said they ultimately needed TenPoint Coalition’s presence to figure out how the coordination will work.
IBA Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Calderon-Rosado said she attended the hearing in hopes of better understanding the coordination, but left empty-handed.
‘I was interested in learning what was going to be asked about the initiative,’ she said. ‘I guess it will be next time.’
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