New Haven Independent

The eight were among more than two dozen New Haven boys and five adults just returned from a three-day camping trip to Sessions Woods Wilderness Management Area in Burlington, Connecticut. The trip was planned and executed by city cop Shafiq Abdussabur, who several years ago founded CTRibat. The name stands for Children and Teens’ Retreat; “ribat” means “retreat” in Arabic.

Abdussabur said the program is a getaway for kids in mind, body and spirit. (Click here for a background story.)

The eight were sent by the Juvenile Review Board, an experimental new program to keep kids out of the criminal justice system.

“We don’t work with youth at risk, but rather [the JRB] is an early intervention prevention program,” said coordinator Kyesha Velazquez. “All of our kids made a mistake, a bad choice — these are all minor, minor things, some things that some of us may have done in the past when we were growing up, but it wasn’t such a big deal back then.”

For example, one of the boys referred to the JRB was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for riding his bike on the sidewalk, which is illegal under city ordinances. He went on the camping trip.

Participants on the camping trip learned to set up tents, cook outdoors, hike in the woods and play group games — all with an eye toward dissuading them from the temptation toward drugs and street violence back home. Abdussabur said the camping trip is an experience in leadership for the boys, mostly ages 8 to 14. “We spend every waking moment in that camp carving out leadership skills in every kid that’s there,” he said. He promoted the camp this year “as a gun and gang violence prevention retreat, and I put it on the flyer so there was no mistake about what we were doing.”

Besides the eight from the JRB, some boys were referred by the state’s juvenile probation department; others participated in past CTRibat programs.

Velazquez said the kids loved the trip and said they’d like to go again. She added that the collaboration between CTRibat and the JRB program will be ongoing, and she expects more of her kids to go on next year’s camping trip. “It’s always a good idea to send youth on different explorations to expand their minds,” she said. “And I also liked having young males with older males, like a mentoring situation. That’s important for their development.”

The mother of one of the boys was equally enthusiastic. “What it really is about is to show the young men there’s other stuff to do besides hanging with your friends and being with boys that want to shoot or sell drugs,” said Adrian Cooper, whose son, Tyrell Smith, joined CTRibat when he was eight. He’s now 14. She said he’s never been in trouble, and he loves everything the program offers — which included a visit last year to the set of the Indiana Jones movie that was shot in New Haven.

Abdussabur said in addition to straight kids like Tyrell, he got referrals from families, police and social service providers “who feel like some of these children are headed down a path that is going to lead them toward jail, and they feel this program is an intervention to prevent that.”

As for the eight from the JRB, he said, “Their successful participation in this camp certainly is going to be a deciding factor in some of their court cases.”