New Haven Independent

The pledge came at the end of a busy meeting for the aldermanic Youth Services Committee at City Hall Tuesday evening. On the agenda: getting to know the new crew of outreach workers and checking in on city-sponsored summer programs such as Youth @ Work and Open Schools.

As the meeting got underway, a group of eight outreach workers - including one woman, Gloryvee Matta (pictured) — filed into the City Hall conference room wearing oversize Street Outreach T-shirts. Alders and city officials outlined their hopes for the $400,000 Street Outreach program, which was launched last week as part of a mayoral initiative to build bridges with kids who have fallen out of reach for all but the police.

Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark, who chairs the Youth Services Committee, said she is proud of the program. She commended the new hires for taking on the city’s most difficult juvenile cases. (Clark also asked outreach workers to submit a progress report in 90 days.)

“All of us are very worried about the 10 percent of kids that you can’t see, who are only known to the police,” Clark said. “But I feel very proud that this program is reaching out to those cases.”

Tyrone Weston (pictured), a supervisor for Street Outreach, said his recruits had trained for weeks to reach standards set by the New Haven Family Alliance. In order to serve as liaisons between the streets and City Hall, they acquired a base of knowledge about municipal services. They also shadowed members of a similar outreach program in Providence, R.I., where its formula of non-confrontational guidance had shown successful results in leading kids away from crime.

Acting on recommendations from Police Chief Francisco Ortiz, New Haven’s outreach workers will start canvassing 10 of the city’s most crime-ridden districts Monday, Weston said. Although workers will not have to make information available to the police, Weston stressed that partnership with law enforcement was a valuable asset to their job.

Their first priority will be to win the trust of some 200 “high-risk” individuals aged 14-23 who are well-known by the police, Weston said. He added that gang-leaders and convicted criminals were not out of reach, if only outreach workers could convince them that they weren’t informants for the NHPD.

“We don’t want to scare people into thinking we’re the police,” he said. “What we can do is talk to them as big brothers and sisters who have been down that route.”

Youth Services Director Che Dawson added that the outreach program’s effectiveness hinges on the understanding that workers will not any reveal information — no matter how incriminating — to the police.

“Information flows one way — from the police to the outreach workers,” he said. “And it doesn’t flow back the other way.”

Despite their enthusiasm, many participants warned against expecting immediate results from the program in the form of a drop in crime. Shirley Ellis West (pictured), who works for the New Haven Family Alliance, said she is invested in the program but will not press for results in the short term.

“We are all 100 percent devoted to this idea,” she said. “But we’re also mindful of the challenges. We’ll be lucky if we’re successful over three years.”

A discussion about the limits of the experimental program — which workers identified as funding and adequate personnel — prompted Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead to ask: “Is there ever going to be a point where we have enough workers to 200 youths?”

Tyrone Weston answered that the program will do its best to reach the most troubled youths. Being able to connect them with employment services — and potentially offer them jobs through City Hall — will improve workers’ chances of making a difference. Still, “success” will not be easy to measure, he said.

“For me, success is to get someone engaged in a dialogue and enrolled in a GED program,” he said. “There are no overnight solutions.”

Also at the meeting, Dawson reviewed participation numbers for the City’s Youth @ Work summer employment initiative. The city exceeded its target of placing 1,200 teens in jobs and internships for the summer, he said. Most experiences have been successful — with some kids being offered jobs post-high school — although some youths had disappointed employers with a lack of work ethic.

As for the Open Schools program, which provides recreational activities to kids during the summer, Pierette Silverman said it had been more successful in some areas than others. An average of 55 teens aged 12-18 showed up per day in popular sites, whereas only 15 per day attended in neighborhoods where the initiative was poorly advertised.

Operating at nine locations across New Haven, the Open Schools program was re-launched earlier this summer in response to a wave of gun violence. Open from 3-8pm on weekdays, it hosts a number of creative workshops and sports activities.

Tuesday’s meeting also marked the launch of the “Democracy High School,” a six-week program to promote civic values and teach teens about city government.

Silverman, who is wrapping up a job with City Hall’s Youth Initiative, said the new program will host after-school classes from 25 high-school students throughout the fall semester. Funded by a grant from the Connecticut Youth Services Association, it aims to reach a diverse selection of students from many New Haven public schools, Silverman said.

“We wanted the program to reach a broad section of kids,” Silverman said, explaining a decision not to select student on the basis of their test performance. Instead, students will be nominated for participation in the program.

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