Aliyya Swaby Photos
Julissa Collado prepares students for their lobbying trip.
Devonte Fletcher plans to bring a story to Hartford Tuesday, a story he hopes will convince state lawmakers not to gut the youth agency that has made a big difference in his life.
Fletcher (pictured at left) plans to tell the legislators that he was uninterested in making new friends until he joined LEAP a couple of years ago and began to appreciate his peers’ individual skills and knowledge. “It helped me develop an accepting personality,” he said. “I can welcome people, the way people welcomed me” at the beginning.
Fletcher, a 15-year-old at Hillhouse High School, is one of three students who will testify Tuesday before a subcommittee of the state legislature’s Appropriations Committee. Their mission: To persuade legislators to renew a state grant to support community youth organization LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership) in the upcoming fiscal year. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget eliminates the entire grant — a prospect that would mean severely curtailing the organization’s activities.
LEAP has turned the funding crisis into a teachable civics moment.
Fletcher and other students gathered at the organization’s community center at 31 Jefferson St. last Friday, to prepare their arguments that the organization offers students employment, mentorship and an alternative to criminal activity.
In addition to the three students testifying, more than 100 total will head to the Capitol to speak to individual legislators one on one or in small groups — the largest delegation in the organization’s history, said Henry Fernandez, executive director.
LEAP hires middle school, high school and college students to serve as mentors and tutors for younger low-income students and to “run the city’s largest youth agency,” in terms of number of students served, Fernandez said. Over the last year, more than 1,200 students between 7 and 18 participated in LEAP at five sites in donated spaces throughout the city, including Fair Haven, Dixwell, Farnam Courts, Dwight and Church Street South. At the 31 Jefferson St. community center, students have access to a swimming pool, gymnasium, dance studio, library, teaching kitchen and classrooms.
This past year, LEAP received $690,413 from the state, about a third of the organization’s budget, combined with about $60,000 from the city, as well as individual and private organizations, Fernandez (at left in photo) said. Over the last several years, LEAP kids and representatives have had to plead their case and “build support in the legislature” to receive that funding. Although New Haven-based state senators and representatives are supportive of the organization, “it’s our responsibility to give all the support we can,” Fernandez said said.
Without the state grant, the organization would have to close its pool, lay off many of its teen counselors, serve a third as many young students and stop running on the weekends, Fernandez said. During the summer, LEAP ensures its students keep on track for literacy goals, to prevent them from falling behind when school is out.
Students are “take the lead in advocating for LEAP,” to live out the organization’s fundamental idea that “students and young people can lead,” if provided with the necessary resources and support, he said. Legislators will learn “why an individual young person in LEAP personally believes LEAP is important.”
College-aged site coordinators Friday led the counselors in discussing three of the organization’s positive effects on the communities: the employment opportunities it offers older students, the impact it has on younger students and its contribution to decreased crime rates in New Haven.
Julissa Collado, who is 24, split her group of Fair Haven counselors into groups of three, one to each topic. She said she wanted them to also prepare for any backlash to their statements, to know how to respond to people who weren’t going to be easily convinced of LEAP’s merits.
“It’s important to let them know we have power in our neighborhood,” said Collado (at right in the photo at the top of the story)
Leiyanie Osorio, who is 23 and studying criminal justice at Albertus Magnus College, pointed out that mentors can build a “lifetime relationship” with the younger students. Many students start off participating in the after school and summer programs, and eventually move through the ranks to be counselors to others as early as middle school.
“The program builds them up all the way to adulthood,” Osorio (pictured middle) said, to agreement from her peers. A senior counselor, she will join Fletcher in testifying Tuesday, speaking specifically to LEAP’s role in reducing local crime.
Over at the Dixwell site group, coordinator Fransette Morant’s students contributed their own responses. LEAP “brings people together that probably wouldn’t have otherwise interacted,” said HIllhouse student William Evans.
Deja Henry, also from Hillhouse, added that the program brought kids together in a city that “has a lot of violence,” to “actually get to know one another and not have to partake in foolishness.”
“As counselors, we’ve already been through a lot of stuff,” Evans said.
Quiara Outing, now a Coop High senior, was once a 7‑year-old LEAP kid who knew she wanted to eventually be a counselor. She said she was a “little bit” nervous to testify on Friday, but was carefully preparing her statements.
Through the organization, Outing went on college tours and participated in community service trips to different local shelters, both things she “wouldn’t have thought to do otherwise,” she said.
Though Fletcher joined more recently, he hopes to be a LEAP leader for the long haul. “I plan on staying until they say, ‘You can’t be here no more,’” he said.
