New Haven Independent

Foster and his wife, Pastor Leslie Foster, run one of the city’s thriving houses of worship, Church on the Rock (COTR). It’s a big church, with 700 members from families from all over town. In the face of the growing number of shootings and murders involving urban teens, the Fosters started youth programs at their church. Then they united with other churches to broaden it. They’re looking to team up with institutions from other faiths, as well.

Their approach is to convince stable adults to spend more of their time helping children, and stressed parents, navigate the minefield of growing up in New Haven’s neighborhoods in the 21st century.

The community can’t count on the cops alone, or politicians, to fashion long-term solutions that attack the root of the problem, the Fosters argue.

“The church needs to step it up beyond the rally,” Todd said in an interview at the church’s Hamilton Street home. He has run the church for 13 of its 15 years. “Sometimes you need to shout. But if that’s all you do, you fail.”

“Kids are looking for someone who will listen. They will open their hearts if they feel you care” and put in the time, Leslie (pictured) said. Before joining her husband at COTR and overseeing youth programs there, Leslie taught in the city public schools. Kids need more adults in their lives, she said, especially when single moms are working longer hours and “we have a media that just vomits on our kids with perversion. They’re stuck in their homes because of the violence on the streets. I see a mindset of hopelessness. What’s the point? If you can give kids hope, increase vision in their lives, show them something different, they will possess strength.”

Curfews Versus Guidance

Todd said he supports the controversial proposed teen curfew as a short-term measure. He said he sympathizes with police complaints that the curfew places too much of a burden on them and fails to offer a long-term solution. But, he said, for starters “we need to get the blood off the street.” Yes, he added, the police shouldn’t have to “do it alone. Community leaders need to be involved, too.”

That’s where he sees the churches coming in. Two summers ago COTR started a summer program for 13 to 17 year-olds. It’s more than a job program. “The issue is much larger than providing summer income and keeping kids off the street,” he said. In the morning the kids pray, then they discuss and learn from visiting adults from the community about values, about personal finances, about dealing with day-to-day conflicts. After lunch, they work at jobs lined up for them with the help of leaders like Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart.

This past summer the Fosters linked up with seven other churches to expand the program to 35 kids (pictured) in several locations. They had already developed links with other churches through a new citywide religious social-action group called New Haven 828.

The Fosters also run a Wednesday youth group at COTR during the school year. Seventy-five kids take part each week. Once a month 19 adult mentors are matched with 19 teens. Again, they discuss finance, conflict resolution, scripture. They do some socializing outside the church, get to know each other.

For next year, the Fosters would like to unite with Jewish and Islamic congregations to broaden the summer teen program further — add sites, draw in more responsible adults to volunteer.

“Why can’t they meet at the synagogue? Why can’t they meet at the mosque? With atheists?” Foster said. The idea wouldn’t be to meld religious training or “to pretend we all see things the same way. But we can love each other and work together.”

He envisions teen programs meeting separately at different houses of worship Monday through Thursday, during which time they’d handle religious instructin in their own traditions, then come together for joint programs on Fridays. (E-mail Todd Foster here or call him at 498-2687 ext. 12.)

Missing Men

Back at COTR, the Fosters plan to attack the problem with aother new program focusing specifically on males. They developed it with a congregant named Orlando Yarborough, who’s pursuing his PhD. at Yale. Todd plans to introduce it during his Sept. 24 sermon about “bringing heaven to earth.”

“What are we going to do about the male crisis in New Haven?” he plans to ask the congregation. Then he’ll instruct all boys (over 7 years old) and men to come to the pulpit. He’ll ask those who grew up or are growing up without a father to stand to one side of the pulpit. That group will include both Todd and Yarborough.

He’ll further separate the group by which have or had no contact with their fathers growing up. (Todd won’t be part of that group. He knew his dad.)

In the end, he’ll ask everyone to reunite. The message: “Though we all lack individually, we should all come together. In this house, we lack for nothing. When we share our knowlege, our spiritual insights, we lack for nothing.” In other words, adult men need to volunteer their time, bring whatever knowledge or skills they have, to the lives of teen-aged boys.

The Fosters have been speaking with mothers and fathers in the congregation about what they feel kids need to learn at different ages, from tying a tie to handling conflicts with friends. They put together checklists. Those checklists will provide the information at the core of what they plan to teach in the program.

Curfews may help, Todd said. Summer jobs help. In the long term, it’s the information, it’s that guidance, that will wash the blood from the streets of New Haven.