Prevention is Key to Combating Gang and Youth Violence, Say Two County Board Committees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 3, 2007

Contact: Rose Vinci at (914) 995-8434 or Chris Giliberti at (914) 995-4006

Creating additional after-school programs, making economic opportunities available to young people and creating programs to assist young parents are three major ways to combat gang and youth violence in Westchester, two county Board of Legislators Committees were told today.

The Generational, Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Committee, chaired by county Legislator Bernice Spreckman along with the Public Safety and Security Committee, chaired by county Legislator William Burton, conducted the meeting, the second in a series on the topic of gang/youth violence, in which Municipal Youth Bureau Directors were invited to share their experiences working with local youths with the Board of Legislators.

The key to dealing with youth violence is prevention, the legislators were told by officials from several youth bureaus.

Spreckman told the youth bureau representatives that the committees were seeking to “help create a program of peace.” And wanted to hear how the Board of Legislators can help to bring about change.

Frank Williams, the executive director of the White Plains Municipal Youth Bureau, said that to deal with youth violence, all elements of society must participate. “When we look at our kids we have to look at our community, our churches, our neighborhood and our families,” he said. “We have more and more single-parent families here.”

With a single parent or two parents working during the afternoon and early evening hours, youths are often left unsupervised and can get into trouble and commit crimes, Williams said. “Once they engage in this activity, it’s already too late,” he said. “It requires investing in young people on the front end and creating a sense of community.”

One of the investments should be to make additional after-school program available, Williams said. Young people often become gang members because they seek a way to join with their peers, Williams said. “They create their own source of community,” he said, adding that schools should be left open in the afternoons and early evenings to provide additional academic and other programs.

Minister Arthur Muhammad, a community organizer from Mount Vernon, said youths “have their own subculture” and adults must deal with it to reach young people. For example, when advertising a youth program, fliers must be created in a style geared toward teens, he said.

“Skill intense programs” to prepare youths for work must be made available, Muhammad said. But preventing youth violence is not a simple matter, Wanda London from the Yonkers Municipal Youth Bureau told the legislators. Selling drugs is often more profitable for a young person than having a job and society needs to break the cycle of drug abuse, she said.

Also participating in today’s meeting were Jim Bostic, Director of the Nepperhan Community Center in Yonkers; Valerie Swan, executive director of the Peekskill Municipal Youth Bureau; Camille Banks-Lee, executive director of the Mount Vernon Municipal Youth Bureau; Kelly Johnson, executive director of the New Rochelle Municipal Youth Bureau; and Michael Arterberry, and executive director for The Guidance Center and the creator of the Power of Peace Program.

County Legislator Jose Alvarado agreed that after-school programs must be available for youths, with 3 to 6 p.m. an especially important time to have them occupied in a positive way. “That’s the time when kids are home and are not properly supervised,” Alvarado said.

While “we’re not going to save them all,” there must be more efforts to prevent youths from getting into trouble, he said. “If we don’t correct it now, we have no future,” Alvarado said.

Spreckman said the committees would continue to address the topic of gang/youth violence. At the suggestion of today’s participants, representatives from the business community, labor unions and youths helped by existing programs will be invited guests at follow up meetings set to take place in the near future.