Skip to main content

Bridging the Gap: Youth, Community and Police



Bridging the Gap: Youth, Community and Police


On Tuesday July 19th, the department of Youth and Community Programs created and implemented an event titled “Bridging the Gap: Youth, Community and Police”



The principal objective of the event was to educate our youth and community members on how to rebuild and improve relationships with police, and allow them a safe space to interact and get to know one another on a person level.
 
A few community officers from the local Police Service Area One (PSA1) precinct in Red Hook, joined us along with some of our youth program participants, Peacemakers and Justice Center staff. Some of the conversations included what it takes to become a police officer, what is life like as an officer and much more. Using a circle process, everyone had a chance to ask questions, voice their own opinion and share stories. It was a very powerful event and gave everyone a chance to break down stereo-types around officers and humanize them. Many of the officers talked about their personal experiences on and off the job and related with the Youth in many ways.



With many of the unfortunate current events involving police happening around the world this couldn’t have taken place at a better time. People around the world are advocating for changes and want to repair not only the justice system but relationships with the community and law enforcement. We were able begin initiating the steps to improve relationships and contributing to the much needed change, specifically locally here in the Red Hook community. 

Overall it was a huge success and opened the minds of all of our participants. We are looking forward to creating similar events to help bridge the gap between the youth community and police.

 
Everyone joined together for a group photo!


As a thank you for their participation the officers received awards, goodie bags with Justice Center promotional items and tees!


#GOREDHOOK








 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Peacemaking in Red Hook

Raymond Deal, Traditional Program Specialist, Shiprock District Court, Navajo Nation and Gloria Benally, Program Coordinator, Navajo Nation, train future Red Hook Peacemakers After an intensely trying period in Red Hook in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy, building, strenghtening, and healing relationships between residents and organizations has become crucial. This past weekend, we took a step towards preparing the neighborhood for the hard work ahead with a two-day workshop with peacemakers from the Navajo Nation for residents we are training to serve as peacemakers here in Red Hook. A new project from the Center for Court Innovation's Tribal Justice Exchange , peacemaking is a traditional Native American approach to justice. While the exact form peacemaking takes varies among tribes, it usually consists of one or more peacemakers—often community elders—who gently guide a conversation involving not only those directly involved in an offense or conflict but family

Supporting the Staten Island Youth Justice Center at "Inside/Outside Legislative Theatre" Performance

On June 4th, a group of the Red Hook Youth Court members and staff went to see the "Theater of the Oppressed NYC" performance at the New School. Before attending this event, the youth court members had no idea that anything like this went on! While there, we learned that 12 different legislative laws were changed through something called "Legislative Theatre." The audience members get to be "spect-actors," which is great because the actual audience members got to participate in the play themselves and share their ideas. The performances last night were put on by members of the Staten Island Youth Justice Center (part of the Center for Court Innovation Family). These two plays dealt with real life issues such as getting stopped for not paying your bus fare, arriving late to school and getting sent to the principal's office because of the "zero tolerance policy," getting into fights at school, not knowing one's rights, and being raciall