Students compete in sports and academics at Saturday Night Lights. A program fot the youth that includes mentorship from the NYPD.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
The New York City Police Department and the City Department of Youth and Community Development announced on Saturday in Brooklyn that they are looking to prevent youth crime this fall by providing youngsters with weekend activities and mentorship programs to keep them off the streets and out of trouble.
Dubbed Saturday Night Lights, the stacked curriculum offers kids and teens from ages 11 through 18 a place to play sports and video games with cops while also being served food and being tutored by coaches. The new season kicked off on Oct.14 at the Prince Joshua Avitto Community Center in East New York. Those backing the project, like Mayor Eric Adams, say they hope that young people will choose this inclusive initiative over firearms and violence.
“If a young person has a basketball in their hand, they’re not going to have a nine in their hand. If they are in a safe space, they are not going to be creating atmospheres which are unsafe,” Hizzoner said. “These are proactive ways of Saturday nights to do things, over 100 programs all over the city. Just really committed to this work and we’re going to expand.”
Recent bloodshed in East New York has been well documented, so much so that the community center in the kickoff was held is named after a six-year-old tot who lost his life in a 2014 knife attack. For those like Assembly Member Nikki Lucas, gang clashes and other acts of violence are a symptom of living in underfunded communities of color. But, initiatives like Saturday Night Lights, she said, are often able to give members a respite from gang mentality.
“We have some severe conditions that happen in our communities that are not unique when it comes to places that house black people and we have to be unafraid to really say those things,” Lucas said. “A lot of people don’t…
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