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

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