New Haven Independent

McGhee, 20, was hanging around the office of the Street Outreach Team, a city-funded initiative run by the New Haven Family Alliance to mentor at-risk youth. The above was her explanation for why she ended up on probation and doing community service. But she got hooked up with the outreach team because she knows Twan Singleton, aka Cuzin Twiz. “I know him from around the neighborhood; he’s a nice person. He told me about the program and I thought it was a good program for me.”

As part of the outreach program, McGhee and 20 other young people are in a four-week class, learning, she says, “how to get a job, how to do a resume, how to dress for interviews, how to stay out of trouble, what to do, what not to do. I want to go to school for medical assistant, and I also want to be a correction officer.”

Felicia “Flex” Brown, another member of the outreach team, is sitting at her desk nearby and chimes in. “We want to stay involved with the kids from the time they get in the program, from now on. They come here to do whatever they have to do as far as the curriculum, but we don’t want them to think the only time they can call us is if it’s school-involved or job-involved, you can call us for whatever. That’s what we’re here for - to be support for them.”

“They’re part of the family,” pipes up Doug Bethea, who, along with his job on the outreach team, (and besides his own personal connection with street violence when his son was murdered last year), has been running The Nation drill team for the past 19 years. McGhee used to be part of another drill team, based in West Haven, but it disbanded. Click here for her poignant conversation with Bethea about joining his team.

Before team members left the office to hit the street, Family Alliance Executive Director Barbara Tinney said she thinks the program, which targets 12- to 26-year-olds, is going “splendidly” and that that has a lot to do with who’s on the outreach team - people who know the kids and are very committed to them. It’s all about engaging the 200 or so young people in the city who are already involved in violence or highly at risk of doing so, and providing support to help them on a better path. Click here to learn what surprised her about those who have joined the program so far.

The reason team members are so good at engaging the kids is that several of them have been down that wrong road themselves. Singleton (pictured), for example, said he ran away from home in New York at the age of 15, came to New Haven and began selling drugs, for which he served five years in prison. After getting out, he made a decision to change his life. He has a music show on Citizens Television (running in New Haven, West Haven and Hamden) and a lot of kids know him from that; some of them have been on his show. (He also confesses to wanting to be a comedian, and duly impresses this reporter as a funny guy, telling jokes in the van on the drive to and from the team’s initial visit to the West Hills neighborhood.)

Brown also served time in jail when she was young. In conversation with McGhee, she comes across as an experienced older sister, warning the young woman not to jive the reporter. But she also exudes a walloping dose of caring and concern for her.

“Engagement” is the operative word. On the drive over, Singleton says it’s important to be straightforward with the kids, “to teach them structure a little at a time, but not to come at ‘em like a parent, because if you do, you lose ‘em. I keep that door open as a friend.” Click here for more of his philosophy.

After the team arrives at the Valley Townhouses on Valley Street, Brown (pictured above) makes it a point to speak to all the adults she sees around the complex. It’s clear that this outreach business is not an attempt at a quick fix for the violence and hopelessness that spurred the team’s formation. She gives her card to everyone she meets and records the names and contact information for those willing to give it. Click herefor her views on the importance of adults in the lives of kids and how to build trust over time.

Meanwhile, Singleton is hangin’ with Tye Hannans, 16 (pictured). He says he knows Twiz from his TV show. He goes to Riverside Academy, did not have a job this summer, and thinks being in the program could be helpful to him. Click here for his comments.

For more information on the street outreach program, contact Tyrone Weston, program supervisor, email here.