New Haven Independent

They were two of hundreds of people, mostly from the state’s biggest cities, who attended the Governor’s Summit on Urban Youth Violence Tuesday at Central Connecticut State University.

The summit followed earlier meetings in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport where teens and adults who work with them expressed their concerns and ideas for change.

The focus was on youth violence as a public health issue. One speaker presented data describing 20 risk factors — including availability of drugs and firearms, family conflicts, academic failure, and gang involvement — that predict teen violence and other negative behaviors. A public health approach seeks to provide the greatest benefit for the largest number of people, and proponents insist such an approach is needed because youth violence is the second leading cause of death (after accidents) among young people between the ages of 10 and 24. Within that disturbing statistic is another disturbing one of racial disparity: homicide rates among young African American males is 58.3 per 100,000, while for young white males it’s 3.3 per 100,000. Data are from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Tracy Tamberra (pictured), an assistant professor of criminology at the University of New Haven and co-chair of the preliminary New Haven meeting Novr 12, spoke after a video showing highlights of each of the three meetings. She said the idea that poor, urban families are so different from middle class people scares her. “The crap they’re faced with is different, but who they are as human beings I don’t think is any different. I think when we mythologize the poor and don’t let them speak for themselves, on a good day it’s patronizing. On a bad day, it’s dangerous.”

That theme of participation by the people most affected by urban youth violence - i.e., urban youth themselves, and their families - echoed throughout the conference. Tio Hardiman, director of a violence reduction and gang mediation program in Chicago called CeaseFire, described how the strategies his group employed dramatically reduced murders in a few-year period. He also mentioned that he knew Barack Obama, adding, to applause from the audience, “It goes to show you what a community organizer can do.”

On an afternoon panel, one speaker urged — implored — those who interact with youth “to spend two minutes just listening to them.”

Over lunch, Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark (pictured) said the discussion at the New Haven meeting and this one had been productive. Clark, head of the aldermanic Youth Committee,
said she likes that the Chicago group had a name like CeaseFire, and a Hartford group in attendance working against gang violence was called Peace Builder. “So I think we need to have a marketing name like that for people to understand” the goal of youth anti-violence work in New Haven.

Before the lunch break, participants were invited to respond to what they’d heard so far. That’s when Monique Armour got up and said she needed help to continue her work with the group she and her sister co-founded, the Newhallville Community Resource Center. So at lunch, Yolanda Lopez sought her out. She told Armour that there is funding available for youth programming and that in a recent round only two agencies from New Haven applied for state money, and both were funded. She said she thought Armour’s group would qualify if she submitted an application.

One professional suggested the goal of everyone in the helping professions should be to empower their clients and put themselves out of business. Kyesha Velasquez, who coordinates the New Haven Juvenile Review Board, or JRB, said, “Human service agencies will always be needed. That’s a fact.” But she added that if kids’ behavior resulting in minor infractions for which they’re now arrested could be decriminalized, “then maybe we could focus the JRB on higher risk cases.” She urged less talk and more action.

After lunch Gov. M. Jodi Rell addressed the summit. “What does it say about a society when a child is killed on a city street, and those who are far removed, safe in the suburbs, stand up and say, ‘Not my problem.’ Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t have to tell you, it’s everybody’s problem.”

Then she cautioned her listeners not to expect much in the way of funding to deal with the problems, due to the state’s budget crisis.