Community groups look to expand youth offerings this summer
May 6—There are community groups in numerous pockets of Toledo that offer enrichment programs for kids and young adults, and their leaders are feeling a heightened sense of urgency this year to ensure the city’s youth have access to healthy summer activities.
June Boyd, a former Toledo City Council member and community leader, gathered a dozen people Wednesday evening at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church to brainstorm how those groups could work together to increase recreational offerings for kids to keep them away from drug use and gun violence.
Ms. Boyd talked about the many memorials erected in front yards, on city street corners, in parks, and on billboards that she drives by every day. So many, she said, are for young people killed by senseless gun violence.
“We’ve got too many. We need to stop having to put up memorials in the neighborhoods and put up structures so these children can have some recreation,” she said.
Ms. Boyd called on elected officials and grassroots leaders alike to pool their efforts to ensure that no child is without access to sports, the arts, media, and mentoring programs this summer as the community attempts to emerge safely from the coronavirus pandemic and grapples with increased gun violence across the city.
“Most of us have already lived our lives. We need to give the children a chance to live theirs,” she said.
She noted no one from Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz’s office nor from city council was present at the small-group discussion but said she did invite them and intends to follow up.
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The mayor and Councilmen Tiffany Preston Whitman, Vanice Williams, and Cerssandra McPherson on Tuesday announced a plan to spend $1.4 million of the city’s American Rescue Plan allocation to bolster summer programs for youth, including sports, recreation, arts and science activities, and a youth jobs program.
They called the investment a signal that city leadership is putting kids first and said there will be no excuse not to have one’s child involved in one of the many free or low-cost programs planned for this year.
The Kapszukiewicz administration plans to allocate funding to groups that have already found success, so that they can reach more young people this year.
But several community members on Wednesday said they have heard few details about the programs, and they hoped there was still room to add more to the city’s list of partners.
Mark A. Vaughn, Sr., program director for the Chico Vaughn Basketball Camp, said he wants to see basketball programming for all ages in all parts of the city this year.
Giving kids something active to do keeps them busy and having fun — and fights the boredom and restless energy he said so often leads to unhealthy or dangerous activities.
His organization could provide such alternatives and pair kids with adult mentors, but they’d need financial assistance to expand the camp’s current offerings.
Vergie Williams, president of Open Arms Community Center of Toledo, offers boxing, kick-boxing, dance, cooking classes, family fitness camps, at gaming at two locations in Toledo.
She, too, said she hopes to access some of the city’s federal aid dollars to grow her offerings for children.
John A. Barner III, founder of 2400 Athletics Youth Sports and Mentoring, said assistance from the city would be great, but community leaders don’t have time to wait on it. His organization offers several athletic options for youth as well as a program for youth interested in producing films and documentaries.
Mr. Barner urged the leaders of similar organizations to pool their resources, share facilities, and lean on each other to grow the programming options Toledo’s youth need.
