Young people who live in what city officials say are New York City’s most violent public housing developments were shocked to learn their City-led mentorship program was canceled last month, with just seven days’ notice.
On Friday, they joined with non-profit leaders and some city council members at the City Council committee meeting on criminal justice to demand the Department of Probation reinstate the Next STEPS program, saying they had been let down by the City.
“Yet again, somebody has gave up on them,” Next STEPS mentee Samiya Spain, 19, told Gothamist, referring to young people in the program. “This was like an outlet for them to get away from certain things.”
For nine years, the department has paid nonprofits to provide one-on-one and group mentoring through a cognitive behavioral therapy-based curriculum to more than 200 people aged 16-24 who live in or around the City’s most crime-ridden housing developments.
The purpose of the program was preventative: To help young people who have experienced violence to avoid criminal activity, and instead pursue jobs and education.
Mentors from within the community — often who have had their own experiences with the criminal justice system — held weekly meetings where young people were given a hot meal, job training, assistance with getting licenses and IDs, help with school, therapy and advice.
But one day in late August, Next STEPS providers said they received an 8 p.m. email from the probation department advising that their contracts had been canceled and they had five working days to end the program.
In a letter to Department of Probation commissioner Juanita Holmes, they said they were “astonished.”
“My initial reaction was shock,” said Peleya Patterson, a Next STEPS provider at Good Shepherd Services. “And then it was followed by sadness for our young people.”
The program served about 240 young people at a time across 14 locations, at an annual cost of $2.5 million.
At the committee meeting…
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