The Issues and Assets of African Youth on Staten Island's North Shore:

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day without proper identification. On theother h<strong>and</strong>s, there are drugs, guns, <strong>and</strong>people smoking on the street <strong>and</strong> in thebuildings...” 26Figure 10What do youth think will help improve theircommunity?“Safety is most challenging for me, safety formy children. I live in 160 [Park Hill Avenue];before there was security in the building,now we don't have any… Anything couldhappen to our children on their way out <strong>of</strong>the building <strong>and</strong> you would not know until itis late. Recently I heard that a girl was rapedin one <strong>of</strong> the buildings…” 27Park Hill-base youth-serving organizations pay closeattention to keeping participants safe, <strong>and</strong> those locatedoutside Park Hill must address how youth get to <strong>and</strong> fromtheir program. After several youth from Century DanceComplex were physically <strong>and</strong> verbally attacked on their wayhome from the program by youth near the Stapleton Houses,CDC‟s staff organized its youth participants living in Park Hillto walk in a group <strong>and</strong> take a longer route home to avoid theStapleton houses, at least until the organization reaches itsgoal to provide consistent pick up <strong>and</strong> drop <strong>of</strong>f service.63%Moreprotection45%Betterhousingmaintenance42%More jobs39%Morerecreationcenters31%More schools7%Other26 Parent interview, <strong>African</strong> father, February 7, 2009.27 Parent interview, April 17, 2009.18
Asset: Visions for a more empowering community<strong>Youth</strong>, parents, <strong>and</strong> organizations have creative <strong>and</strong> relevantideas <strong>and</strong> desires to improve the North Shore for <strong>African</strong> <strong>and</strong>other disadvantaged youth. <strong>The</strong>se visions embody severalthemes, including safety, unity, opportunities, <strong>and</strong> support<strong>and</strong> outlets for stress.When asked to draw their dream neighborhood, many youthillustrated cleaner communities with more space to play, acommunity center, a pool, more security, parks, <strong>and</strong> sportsfields.<strong>Youth</strong>, parents, <strong>and</strong> organizations agreed on the need formore youth centers to <strong>of</strong>fer job training <strong>and</strong> vocationalprograms <strong>and</strong> more recreational activities, such as sports<strong>and</strong> the arts. Female youth wanted programs targetedspecifically to them.Figure 12Top 10 Female Program Interests(number that indicated interest)3621 19 1916 14 14 1411 11Figure 11: <strong>Youth</strong> community mapping participants atthe Taking a St<strong>and</strong> event, August 2, 2008. Photo byLori Weintrob.Parents frequently described the ideal youth program toinclude a high number <strong>of</strong> teachers/staff <strong>and</strong> vocationaltraining, including trades such as construction, automechanics, carpentry, interior decoration, nursing,cooking/home economics, sewing, <strong>and</strong> embroidery.“This after school program would havecomputers, it would have games <strong>of</strong> all kindsto bring people together, <strong>and</strong> mostimportantly it would have job training foryouth.” 28Organizations want to be able to provide more activities <strong>and</strong>services <strong>and</strong> have more <strong>and</strong> better qualified staff - especiallystaff that could focus on the whole family, <strong>and</strong> increasefamily involvement in programming.28 Parent interview, March 24, 2009.19
Page 11 and 12: have, and designin
Page 13 and 14: Figure 3:The North
Page 15 and 16: Findings: Issues <
Page 17 and 18: Issue: Lack of mon
Page 19 and 20: Youth and<
Page 21: Issue: Living in unsafe conditions<
Page 25 and 26: Asset: Strength of
Page 27 and 28: Figure 17: Peer pressure problem tr
Page 29 and 30: after school. When asked about his
Page 31 and 32: Culture of communa
Page 33 and 34: Issue: Few opportunities for constr
Page 35 and 36: Finally, access of
Page 37 and 38: ConclusionThis assessment was explo
Page 39 and 40: Next Steps and Rec
Page 41 and 42: AppendixList of Or

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