Mayor Bill De Blasio’s proposed suspension of the $124 million Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and the closure of public pools as a way to reroute the city’s funds to the COVID-19 crisis has angered city officials and youth advocates.
“Coronavirus can’t turn into corner violence,” said Borough President Eric Adams on a virtual conference call, April 19, with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and other community leaders. They are calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio to develop a comprehensive summer youth engagement plan throughout the five boroughs that will stave off violence as a result of inactivity.
SYEP has served over 75,000 young people, and their families, with employment and enrichment opportunities.
“If we merely cut SYEP, the closing of pools and of beaches without any alternative interaction with our young people, we could be creating what is now a public health crisis into a public safety crisis. And that is not what we want to see happen,” said BP Adams.
Instances of violence have surfaced throughout black and brown Brooklyn neighborhoods already deeply impacted by coronavirus regardless of distancing and shelter-in-place orders. On April 4, there was a brawl outside of an apartment building on Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville between a large group of teens that had to be broken up by cops. Yesterday, April 19, a 33-year-old man was shot, and later pronounced dead, at the BP Gas station on Pennsylvania Avenue and Linden Boulevard in East New York.
“One of my biggest concerns is an influx of violence as a result of eliminating resources,” said Omar Jackson, director of Stand Against Violence East Harlem (SAVE). “Me growing up in East Harlem, knowing what summer youth did for me. It allowed me the opportunity to not only make an honest and legal dollar, but it relieved stress for myself and my household.”
Many of the community leaders complained that although cuts are expected in a time of crisis, youth advocates weren’t included in the conversation.
“The gun violence doesn’t stop for COVID-19,” said Rashaan Brown, community coordinator at Gangstas Making Astronomical Community Changes (GMACC) which is a youth support group against gun violence located in East Flatbush and Fort Greene.
GMACC already had an e-responder intervention program in place that helps deal with violence in the community by utilizing technology and social platforms. “We still on social media, monitoring the youth, checking in with all our participants, making sure that nobody gets lost in the process,” said Brown.
PA Williams and BP Adams spoke of “hightower leadership” in which decisions weren’t being made by the people on the ground of the crisis.
“We can fashion a program that can also be done at home incentivizing people to stay home and be constructive,” said Williams, about reimagining the youth program or coming up with creative solutions for the current circumstances that also uses technology.
Willaims penned a letter and tweeted about his disappointment at the total elimination of the youth programs and activities. He said the governor didn’t entertain revenue-raising options, like taxes on luxury boats and planes. “The problem is the people making the decisions don’t look like anybody dealing with the problems,” said Williams.
Eric Cumberbatch, who’s Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, said, “We believe solutions are rooted in those that are closest and most impacted by the issues we’re seeking to address. Just because there’s been announcements, and we’re in a uphill battle, that’s not the end for us. It’s not the first time cuts have been brought forward.”
