STEELE CREEK NEWS
Steele Creek Youth
Network Continues to Change Lives
Presented by
Officer Lisa Speas, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
Steele Creek Residents Association Annual Meeting, February 25, 2010
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with you about
the Steele Creek Youth Network or SCYN. I want to begin by having a
couple members of the audience share a couple of examples of how the
Steele Creek Youth Network impacted the lives of our Steele Creek
youth over the past year.
BEFORE:
I am a 16-year old male living in the Steele
Creek community. I am a member of a Crips gang in my neighborhood,
and have been involved in a gang since I was in the 5th grade. I am
well-respected by my gang members, and have moved up in rank over
the years. I attend Olympic HS.
AFTER:
I am now 18-years old and still live in the
Steele Creek community. I am no longer involved with the Crips gang
or any other gang. I began attending the Steele Creek Youth Network
Friday and Saturday night programs in the churches and found a place
where I belong. At the weekend programs, I am able to share with
other teens about my life and encourage them to not take the violent
path I took. I will graduate from Olympic HS in June 2010 and plan
to go to CPCC to study graphic art.
BEFORE:
I am an 11-year old male who attends Kennedy
Middle School. I moved to Charlotte last year with my mother – we
moved here from New York City because my older cousin was a gang
member and he was shot and killed on the streets in New York. I was
angry with the rival gang who shot my cousin, so I joined his gang
so I could retaliate. My mother moved me here to get me away from
the gang life. I am still angry and perform poorly in school. I
disrespect my mother and am getting involved in a gang at the school
here.
AFTER:
Last summer I attended the Steele Creek Youth
Network outdoor summer camp, Survivor Copperhead Island, at McDowell
Nature Preserve. I did not want to go because I had never been in
the woods before, and I did not know anyone else in the camp. I
attended the camp in June and it turned my life around. The adult
counselors made me feel special, like I could accomplish anything,
and I grew to love the outdoors, even bugs. I was voted the Most
Improved Camper at the camp by the other campers, and I earned a new
bicycle. Now I am making the A-B Honor Roll at Kennedy MS, and my
mom says I am like a different kid.
BEFORE:
I am a 15-year old female who lives with my
grandmother in Charlotte. My mother lives with her boyfriend in
Columbia SC, and I don’t get along with him. He abuses my mother.
Lately I have been running away and going to stay with a 30-year old
man. I attend Waddell HS, but I have been skipping school and am
failing my classes.
AFTER:
I have been attending the weekend programs of the
Steele Creek Youth Network for over three years. At first, I
attended them because they were fun and I could hang out with my
friends. But then I started hanging out with new friends at school
and they were a bad influence on me. I started running away and
doing things that I should not have been doing. But my friends from
SCYN kept calling me to get me to come back to the Friday and
Saturday night programs and I finally decided to attend again. As a
result, I decided to attend another high school and convinced my
mother to move to Charlotte so we could live together again. Now I
am making all A’s and am singing in the choir at our church in
Charlotte.
So these are just a few of the kids who
participate in the Steele Creek Youth Network. For those of you
not familiar with SCYN, it is a youth violence prevention program
that I created in May 2005 for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
Department. SCYN is about connecting our local faith community and
neighborhood volunteers with middle and high school youth in the
Steele Creek community, and giving the teens a voice at all the
programs, and teaching them life skills they will need to be
successful in school and in life.
Over the years, there have been as many as eight
new weekend programs in southwest Charlotte that were created as
partnerships between local houses of faith and SCYN. Currently
there are two SCYN weekend programs that continue on a monthly
basis. The program that met here at SWMS – REVolution 161 – ended
in December 2009 not due to a lack of youth participation, but to a
lack of support from the school administration and not enough adult
volunteers to supervise the program. The Friday night youth program
averaged over 450 middle school youth every month.
The weekend programs meet from 6:30-10 pm on
Friday and Saturday nights in the local churches. During that time,
the teens give up their cell phones and iPods and instead have a
group discussion about drug and alcohol abuse by teens, how to stop
violence in their neighborhoods, and what issues they are struggling
with in their lives. They are served a healthy dinner, and then
have a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Others may play games or
cards, or they may create a holiday or thank you card for a parent
or soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan. All in all, the weekend programs
are simply a safe place where local Steele Creek teens find they fit
in, and caring adults are always there to listen and support them,
not just to give advice.
Another component of SCYN is the outdoor summer
camps, Survivor Copperhead Island, similar to an Outward Bound
experience. Middle schoolers are selected to spend the week
outdoors, learning outdoor survival skills, fishing, kayaking,
building a fire and cooking over the open fire, hiking and
backpacking, camping, and learning to be leaders so they can share
their experiences with other youth when they return to their
neighborhoods. With 3-4 adult camp counselors for ten teens, trust
building and relationship building happens instantly and once again,
the campers are empowered to attempt new activities they never
dreamed possible. It is not uncommon for there to be significant
improvements in the youth’s behavior, academics, and self-efficacy
as a result of Survivor Copperhead Island.
This summer there will be six outdoor summer
camps for middle school youth. I will direct the camps through the
Right Moves for Youth program, and sixty middle school youth who
participate in a Right Moves for Youth club this academic year will
be chosen based on their improvements in academics, attendance and
behavior.
The Steele Creek Youth Network is about youth
violence education and awareness. Since last year, I presented to
an additional 45 organizations, homeowner’s associations, houses of
faith groups, school and after-school programs – all on what one
person or an entire organization can do to identify violence in
their neighborhoods and more importantly, how to prevent youth
violence before it happens. If you participate in a business or
organization that could benefit from being more aware of youth
violence and youth violence prevention, email or call me and let’s
discuss having me come out and having a discussion about it with
your group.
SCYN is about identifying organizations that can
provide teens with job training and placement, especially in the
summer when the teens are out of school and have a lot of free time
to go astray.
SCYN is about partnering with Steele Creek
apartments in the summer and providing free bagged lunches to all
youth, ages 18 and under, so they have a free, healthy lunch each
day.
SCYN is a referral source that can assist parents
and teens with local organizations that the family needs in times of
crisis or when a kid needs something to do after school or on the
weekend.
SCYN’s mission is to prevent and reduce youth
violence in Charlotte. And for the past five years of SCYN’s
existence, it has been both successful and unsuccessful in
accomplishing this mission. Though the success stories of Steele
Creek teens who have participated in Steele Creek Youth Network
activities exceed the stories of those teens who took the wrong
path, the work of SCYN is ongoing and never-ending. And
God-willing, I will not let SCYN go by the wayside. We must
continue to reach out to all our Steele Creek youth and remind them
every day that we believe in them, and that we expect them to
graduate from high school, and follow their passions and talents to
be productive, successful citizens in our community.
Since the Steele Creek Residents Association
meeting last year, I was transferred from the CMPD Steele Creek
division to the Right Moves for Youth office. For those of you not
familiar with Right Moves, it is a 20-year old local organization
started by a Charlotte Police officer. RMFY empowers youth in
grades 4-12 in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools to make improvements in
academics, school and class attendance, behavior and attitude, and
social skills. I am the Law Enforcement Liaison between Right Moves
and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
So what that means is that now, instead of having
one full-time job, I have two!
But more importantly it means that the youth and
teens in Steele Creek have access to additional youth programs not
only in the community but also in the schools. It means that the
outdoor summer camps will increase from 3-4 each summer to 6. It
means that youth violence prevention education can be taken into the
schools from elementary through high school, and that life skills
can be learned every week as opposed to just once a month.
Though my office is no longer in the Steele Creek
division, my work in this division continues as before. I never
left Steele Creek, and most importantly, I will never leave the
youth in this community that I have been building relationships with
for over five years. My calling in this short life is working with
at-risk youth, and the Steele Creek Youth Network continues to be a
proven way for me to touch the lives of hundreds, even thousands, of
at-risk youth. I ask for your support of this worthwhile program –
if you have the time or resources to continue this work with local
teens, then make contact with me at your earliest convenience.
In closing, the most important work in a kid’s
life takes place in the home. Having parents or guardians who are
positive role models, who provide structure and guidelines in the
home for the youth, and who encourage staying in school and putting
education as a priority – some of the basic ways that parents can
show support to their kids.
The Steele Creek Youth Network is simply some
additional support that parents can use for their teens. SCYN will
not save all the kids, but if it saves just one, then it has served
its purpose and is well worth its weight in gold.
Thank you.
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Contact Officer Speas at
lspeas@cmpd.org.
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