“It Takes A Village” is a new collaborative and community summer youth violence prevention program. The city of Grand Rapids says the pilot initiative, which kicked off last week, provides recreational, creative, and educational opportunities for youth to help them stay constructively engaged. Here’s Brandon Davis, Director of Oversight and Public Accountability for the City of Grand Rapids which is coordinating the programming.
“The goal of It Takes A Village is to really allow the village of Grand Rapidians to surround our youth. Statistics tell us that violence increases among youths in the summer. That’s not just a Grand Rapids thing, it’s a nationwide thing. So, we wanted to partner with community to really bring together resources to allow our youth to move forward in a production way.”
It Takes A Village is taking place at LifeQuest Urban Outreach and Alger Middle School. The program provides positive activities during the summer weekend evenings. The two sites will offer different programming depending on the teen’s interest.
“Night quest, there’s sports offerings there, 5 on 5 basketball as well as food being offered. Then at the Alger site which they are calling City Vibes, there’s things like drama and art and other things, So there’s the sports side and arts and culture at City Vibes.”
LifeQuest, Grand Rapids Urban League, Grand Valley State University and Grand Rapids Public Schools will offer programming through August 31st to Grand Rapids youth, ages 12 to 17 on Friday and Saturday evenings. Davis says this program will make a big difference.
“I believe that this program, this village, is coming together to surround our youth, not just reducing gun violence, but also to youth having mentors that they can look to and say, wow, they cared about me, they invested in me, they care about my future, and I think that will go a long way.”
