HUB TEENS RALLY TO STOP THE VIOLENCE

By Tenley Woodman
Boston Herald
July 3, 2006

Despite increased funding from city and independent donors for summer youth programs, Boston teens and state officials say it’s still not enough to ensure the safety of the city’s youth.

Youth workers, state officials, media and teens gathered at Teen Empowerment’s offices in the South End last Thursday to discuss what is said to be the city’s most violent year in more than a decade.

“A lot of people are getting used to violence,” said Carlos Moreno, 18, of Dorchester. “When you don’t have somebody supporting you, you are going to fail.”

The city’s $2.4 billion 2007 fiscal year budget, which was passed last week with jeers from more than 100 teen protesters at city hall, is an increase from last year but adds only 478 places to the summer jobs program, bringing the total to 3,542.

Since 2002, when the city offered 5,572 jobs, the number has been shrinking steadily while shootings have been on the rise, according to a recent report by the city council’s committee on Youth Violent Crime Prevention. The decline in funding followed a seven-year lull in violence in the late ’90s.

“When things get better, we assume they are resolved,” said state Rep. Byron Rushing (D–Boston). “We don’t see nonviolence as an ongoing program.”

An additional 4,300 kids will be eligible for programs funded by a $500,000 grant distributed among 41 youth organizations by the Boston Foundation.

The consensus at Team Empowerment was to keep the lines of communication open.

“(City councilor) Chuck Turner said, ‘We don’t need more police, just more community policing.’ When I was younger I looked up to police,” said Amilton Pires, 17, who protested at city hall and attended Thursday’s meeting. “Now when people think of police, they think of more trouble.”

Brianna Rose, a high school freshman from Roxbury, said fear keeps many teens from seeking out the city’s resources.

“Some are in gangs and are scared to talk to police and get killed,” Rose said.