Given the resurgence of youth violence in the city, what specific steps would you take to ensure the safety of youth in our city?
What is your positive vision for youth in the City of Boston, and what do we need to do to get there?
Mayoral Candidate Responses
Michael Flaherty
The street worker program, as operated during the 1990s Boston Miracle, effectively tackled youth and gang violence. Since then, the city has dramatically reduced the street worker program to just 26 workers and four “senior” street workers. In 2003, the program only had 12 street workers! In addition to hiring more street workers, we need to get them back out on the streets – especially during the late evening hours when crime is greatest. We also need to put them back into our schools so they have an opportunity to diffuse student conflict before it escalates into street violence. And when deemed appropriate, we must allow for workers with criminal records to become street workers again. With their intimate knowledge of the streets, they served as vital partners to the BPD and provided them with critical intelligence that resulted in successful efforts to break cycles of gang violence.
Our youth represent our future generation of community leaders, activists, teachers and business CEOs, making it essential that we invest in them at their earliest of ages. I envision a Boston where quality, public early education is available to all families and our public schools fail no child, especially one with barriers to learning. A college education can be pursued and acquired by all of our BPS students. Under my plan for youth, all teens will have access to a summer job and year-round employment opportunities, especially our older teens who need to be off the streets and in a job the most. With many opportunities stemming from the emerging green economy, I want to ensure that our young residents have access to a green vocational school within BPS. The greater the investments we make in this generation today, the stronger our city will be tomorrow.
Thomas Menino
The City is working around the clock to curb youth violence in Boston. While crime is at its lowest level in some time, there is still much work to be done. Police officers, ministers and youth workers have been active in reaching out to at-risk young people in an effort to resolve any outstanding feuds and be proactive in detecting trouble. We’ve worked with private sector companies like John Hancock to give some of these youths real jobs this summer so they have an alternative to the streets. We also support the Boston Foundation’s efforts to augment city resources in these tough times with the Street Safe effort. All of us need to work together to make a difference.
The vast majority of young people in our city want to be productive citizens, so we have an obligation to give them a range of options to succeed. Boston is one of the few cities that provides summer jobs funds from its line budget, we have a number of computer literacy initiatives to reduce the gap between technology “haves” and “have nots”. We created Camp Harborview to give young people another safe place for recreation and fun while exposing them to our great harbor areas. We have also begun a partnership with local colleges to help keep more of our young people enrolled.
During my tenure, we have also created a range of new schools in Boston – including Boston Arts Academy and Tech Boston High School, which seek to give our young people more learning possibilities. We will continue to push for breakthroughs in education success through my proposal for “in-district” charter schools.
At-Large City Council Candidate Responses
Felix Arroyo
As a youth sports coach (I coach young men between the ages of 13 – 15 in Jamaica Plains’ Regan Baseball League), I’m confronted daily by the youth violence problem in our city. My belief is that we have to create a system that values young people, and there are numerous steps that must be taken to change our culture and improve their chances of being successful. It begins with improving the quality of the education they receive in the public schools, and continues with the creation of jobs that let parents spend more time with their families and less time trying to make ends meet. We must also work creatively with institutions like our community centers and non-profit organizations like the Hyde Square Task Force and the Food Project, to give young people alternatives.
John Connolly
Youth violence is the single most important issue facing Boston. When a child dies on our streets, there is no greater tragedy or failing for Boston. Stopping youth violence is partly a matter of will, and partly a matter of strategy and resources. We need a citywide commitment/will to stop violence and see every child as our own. Every citizen and every neighborhood must be committed to stopping youth violence. Strategically, real community policy that links officers walking our streets with neighborhood crime watches and youth workers who reach out to at-risk youth is a proven success. Additionally, we need the resources to supplement will and strategy with an emphasis on early intervention. As a former teacher, I understand the importance of education in reducing youth violence. I recently introduced an innovative program to address Boston’s truancy problem which is a high predictor for children who will ultimately be involved in youth violence within our city. The program focuses on family engagement, parental responsibility, and early intervention. A proactive program such as this, which focuses on all of the needs of the student and the family as a whole, is the most effective way to reduce truancy and its strong association with future youth violence.
Tomás Gonzalez
Communication, prevention, and opportunity are biggest allies in this struggle. I would work to establish better working relationships between pre-existing partnerships, Boston school police, local law enforcement, neighborhood crime watches, community groups, parents and youth groups in order to develop real strategies for three focus areas youth employment, truancy, and neighborhood turf wars emanating from drug money. Finally, I would work with our local universities to recruit mentors for our youth in Boston public High School.
I believe every child in the Boston should graduate from high school and can succeed in whatever career path they choose, as long as, they are guided and mentored correctly; they will attain their goals. Additionally, I want to see an end to street memorials. Our children’s lives are too precious to loose them to senseless violence. We need parents to act as such and take a serious role in the growth and development of their children. Adults should not fear children but that’s where we are today and that needs to change.
Tito Jackson
Two of the major drivers of youth violence are lack of economic opportunity and “lack of integration”.
I will secure funding for summer youth violence prevention programs based on Boston Police Department data for violent “hot spots”.
I will also promote year-around job training programs for youth and recruit businesses to participate.
Youth in the City of Boston are our children, and my vision follows out of this simple observation.
Andrew Kenneally
As a city councilor at-large, I will work to ensure that all of the funds that have been slated for the City of Boston under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act get channeled appropriately. The stimulus funds have already saved the jobs of hundreds of city employees, including our law enforcement officials. A commitment to public safety begins with a commitment to adequately funding those individuals that work on a daily basis to keep our city safe. Second, I believe that all students enrolled in the Boston Public Schools should have access to a designated mentor program. The efficacy of such programs has been well-established in other locales; the presence of a mentor and role model in the absence of parental supervision is critical to the wellbeing of our youth. Third, we must renew our commitment to funding the street workers program that has been so effective in the past.
I envisage a generation of young people who have access to a competitive education that teaches not only skills that will be vital in the workplace, but also the tolerance and compassion that can only come from education. To succeed in creating the schools of the 21st century in Boston, we must eliminate school busing and ensure that all students have access to neighborhood schools. This will enable increased parental involvement, an ingredient which is the cornerstone of any successful education. The money saved from the elimination of all unnecessary school transportation costs should be returned to those schools that are struggling the most. As well, in an age of ever-increasing diversity of all kinds, government needs to work with schools to help promote educational programs in diversity and tolerance, as well as foreign language programs that will arm students with a global worldview and an increased appreciation for other cultures.
Steve Murphy
I encourage collaborative partnerships with the stakeholders, and we are all stakeholders. Not only would I like to see increased numbers of youth workers and after school programs, I would like to see an increase in the number of positive contact our youth has with the Boston Police Department through various events held across the city.
A society is judged by how we care for our youth and our seniors. That said, my vision is that we provide positive alternatives to our youth so that they aren’t lured into a situation that could negatively impact them. This is an effort that we all must embrace and one that I believe can happen. By matching our youth with positive role models in their community we will see a difference in what these young boys and girls will achieve.
Ayanna Pressley
Having grown up in a tough neighborhood in Chicago where there were bad influences and distractions around every corner, I understand the devastating impact violence has on communities. We must focus our public safety resources on community-specific solutions. We also must fully include the community itself-neighborhood associations, religions institutions, community-based organizations-into the discussion of solutions for crime and public safety issues facing each specific neighborhood. Through an open, inclusive process that includes all impacted voices, we can cultivate innovative methods for addressing crime and public safety in each specific neighborhood instead of a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to recognize that each neighborhood faces unique challenges.
We also need to improve access to mentoring, quality education, expanded after-school programs, day care, and children’s health and nutrition programs.
