DISTRICT UNVEILS PROGRAM TARGETING AT-RISK YOUTH

News Release for Immediate Release

January 26, 2009

District Unveils Program Targeting At-Risk Youth
Community-based organizations receive grants to reduce and prevent youth violence through outreach, mentoring, and mediation services

Contact: Feras Sleiman, 202-251-8829

Washington, DC -- Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced today that the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (CYITC) will award grants to three organizations, the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), ROPE, Inc. and Peaceoholics, Inc. to provide outreach services to youth in the District through the At-Risk Youth Assistance Program. The program targets at-risk youth who live in neighborhoods where criminal activity is prevalent.

CYITC is a public-private partnership chartered by the District to help a wide variety of organizations improve the quality, quantity and accessibility of services and opportunities for the city’s youth. Since its 1999 inception, the CYITC has provided grants, technical assistance, training, capacity building, and policy support at the local level. “It is important that the District partners with community organizations to ensure our youth have the best possible resources for making positive life choices,” said Mayor Fenty. “The Latin American Youth Center, ROPE, Inc. and Peaceoholics have a long history of providing substantive services to DC youth who all too often find themselves at risk of becoming negative statistics.”

“The At-Risk Youth Assistance Program will be a critical tool for the city,” said CYITC President and CEO Millicent Williams. “The program essentially makes it possible for the District to exert positive influences into the lives of at-risk youngsters before they are enticed by negatives influences in the community.”Targeting youth between the ages of 14 and 24 is the one of the ways CYITC will seek to ensure the city’s young people are given the necessary tools to generate positive life outcomes.

Grants awarded will give each organization the capacity to connect with more young people and provide the following services: • conflict mediation• crisis intervention• counseling• mentoring• health care and education resources and programs• job placement

In addition, the organizations will utilize their established credibility to continue and further their work in designated Focus Improvement Areas (FIA) in the District. Both will hire a minimum of 10 intervention workers to provide on-going outreach to at-risk youth in targeted neighborhoods. Each intervention worker will provide individual assistance to a minimum of 20 at-risk youth.

Targeted Neighborhoods and Schools

The At-Risk Youth Assistance Program will be active in five FIAs and Police Service Areas (PSA) as well as the DC Public Schools within and surrounding them.

• PSA 103: N (Benning Road); W( 15th St.); S (E. St.); E (19th & 18th Streets)

• PSA 302 : N(New Hampshire & Princeton Streets); W (11th St.); S (Harvard St.); E (Warder St.)

• PSA 403/404: N (Madison St.); W( Georgia Ave.); S (Crittenden St.); E (7th St.)

• PSA 504: NE(Owen Pl., Levis St., K. St., Maryland Ave); NW(Montello Ave); SW (Florida & Benning Roads); SE (18th, 19th, and I Streets)

• PSA 705: N (Alabama Ave.); W( 13th St.); S (Mississippi Ave); E (15th St.)o

1D: Eliot-Hine MS, Eastern HS o

3D: Lincoln MS, Bell Multicultural SHS o

5D: Browne EC, Spingarn SHS o

7D: Hart MS, Ballou SHS Organizations

Latin American Youth Center

The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) is a multicultural community-based organization that supports youth and their families in their determination to live, work, and study with dignity, hope, and joy.

ROPE, Inc.

ROPE (Reaching Out to Provide Enlightenment) is community-based organization that works to build “life to life” connections throughout the community it serves. ROPE serves as a frontline resource to communities that have a history of drug abuse, violence and educational deficiency. ROPE works to uplift the community and its members by providing job training, supporting academic achievement and identifying alternatives to violence.

Peaceoholics, Inc.

Peaceoholics is non-profit organization that is committed to the youth and families of the District of Columbia. Through the various activities of Peaceoholics, youth will be transformed into drug-free and crime-free productive members of their communities.