New Haven Independent

The debate took place at a meeting of Aldermanic Youth Services Committee Tuesday evening.

The question was prompted by an amendment to the city budget passed Monday that responded to the Dwight neighborhood’s loss of the Timothy Dwight School as a potential community center site. The amendment directed city government to “conduct a feasibility study on the creation of community centers” and report back by November.

“The Board of Aldermen has known for a long, long time, and in everybody’s hearts so has the city,” committee Chairwoman Frances “Bitsie” Clark said, “that there’s really no place for kids to just come and hang out in a neutral setting.”

Clark said the city currently has three “major community centers” — Farnam Neighborhood House in Fair Haven, the Boys and Girls Club, and the YMCA — as well as programs run by the schools and other groups. Still, many areas of the city still lack a place “where kids can go and practice being adults,” Clark said.

“What kind of a place should we have?” she asked. “Should we have many community centers? Should we have few community centers? Should they be community-based or citywide-based? And how do we get a will coming from the whole city government and all the Board of Education and all the schools to try to address this issue?”

Hill Alderwoman Jacqueline James-Evans suggested “conventional community centers” alone might not be what the city needs.

“As a social worker for DCF [the state Department of Children and Families],” she said, “I’ve worked in many, if not all, the communities of New Haven. And I’m not sure a community center — meaning, a community center with social activities — is a solution to our problem. Our kids can go into a building and play, but at the end of the night what do they go home to, and then what services are we providing to the families?”

Without a plan for outreach, she said, community centers may not offer very much to young people who do not come of their own accord.

“There is still a gap in regards to an 18-year-old who’s not excited about playing basketball with another 18-year-old, who is possibly selling drugs, possibly homeless, or possibly with parents who are substance abusers, but who need a safe place,” she said. “So what do we lend to those adolescents other then bouncing a basketball?”

Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead agreed.

“Times have changed now, and the streets are raising the kids,” he said, “so I definitely think we need more than a community center. It needs to be not just a place where they can go play basketball, but also a place where they can get the types of services that they need.”

Che Dawson, who heads the city’s youth department, said he believes traditional community centers still have their place.

“How come fun and recreation and a safe place to congregate is not as high a priority as some of these other things?” he said. “To be able to interact and socialize with people your age the way you want to — isn’t that developmentally appropriate?”

Though the fundamental questions remained unanswered, Clark said she was pleased with the spirited discussion of the issue.

“This is the first group that has addressed this mandate, and I have found it fascinating that we didn’t sit here and try to solve problems,” she said. “Nor did we sit here and try to argue with each other. But we actually made suggestion after suggestion, so that there is a tremendous amount of material from this meeting that can be worked on by all kinds of groups.”