Police and Youth - Participating Programs

Building Positive Police-Youth Relations in Connecticut

PARTICIPATING PROGRAMS

YMCA Youth Center – New Haven. Youth facilitated a police discussion panel with questions submitted by their peers from around New Haven. The panel was videotaped, and the YMCA hosted a special showing of the video for youth, parents, and community members.

Urban League of Greater Hartford. Youth leaders met with representatives from the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy to learn about the issue of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in Connecticut and to develop ideas to build more positive police-youth relations. Youth created a video of scenarios that depicted positive and negative police-youth relations in their community, and also included recommendations for how to improve relations. The team plans to post the video to YouTube and to also broadcast it on Hartford Public Access TV.

Original Works, Inc. – Bridgeport. A performing arts group (led by 7 youth, and with over 25 other youth participants) held group discussions with a Bridgeport police officer and created 3 police-youth relations scenarios, which they developed into three performance pieces. The performances were filmed and shared with local police officers, schools, and community programs, and were also posted to You Tube (www.youtube.com/lutherblackwell).

New London Youth Affairs. ‘Teens in Action’ youth group hosted discussion groups with police officers, and invited them to participate in a Students’ Night Out event and a Thanksgiving service project.

Stratford Community Services’ ALPHA Leaders. Youth hosted 4 dialogue sessions on building positive police-youth relations. Each dialogue session involved 6 youth and 2 police officers, and utilized the “Protecting Communities, Serving the Public” Study Circles curriculum from Everyday Democracy. Two sessions were professionally taped and edited, and the resulting documentary is being distributed to police, youth, and community groups. ALPHA high school is located in Stratford.

Waterbury Youth Services. Youth planned and hosted a police-youth charity basketball game in partnership with Waterbury Police Athletic League. Proceeds went to the St. Vincent DePaul homeless shelter in Waterbury.

Your Place Youth Center - New Haven. Youth created and filmed 3 skits depicting police-youth interactions, and invited a group of police officers to watch and discuss the film. The youth-adult team continues to meet on a regular basis.

In addition to the above mini-grant projects, TCC/YDTRC was also able to partner with a social development teacher from a local alternative high school in New Haven to help her to develop a unit on police-youth relations with her students, which she will continue to use in future years. TCC/YDTRC connected her with two area law enforcement officials who were willing to visit her classroom and/or give presentations to the student body, provided resources including the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s curriculum, Youth & Police/Police Patrol, and provided a small grant to help defray the costs of food for a school event with a police officer.

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