![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
Innovative Summer Youth Employment ProgramTeens Become Inner City MappersBy Kate Fields, Executive Director, Greater Eastside Community AssociationThe September 1999 death of 17-year-old Jimmy Barajas may just show up as a State of Michigan statistic on the year's Rate of Teen Deaths by Accident, Homicide, and Suicide report, but for those of us working with at risk kids, his death exemplifies what the terminology really means.
Above right and below left: Knowing the exact locations of the problem would help rid Flint, Michigan, of blight. To that end, a GIS map of data with an exterior physical inventory and building assessment was created.
Given the above conditions, plus significant high school dropout and teen pregnancy rates, the scarcity of job training opportunities, and few recreational activities, it's not surprising that teenage gangs and crime-related activities in Flint are proliferating. Inner City Mappers is a program designed to offer youth a more positive alternative. Pictured at right: CEITA instructor Gary Roth shows mappers a GPS receiver. From left to right: Gemayel Melton, Dwight Laster, David Bowers, Alan Roth. Photo by Dan Bowers.
Through this process we discovered that CEITA had utilized a National Science Foundation grant to create a program called Work/Site Alliance. Their project involved creating a curriculum for high school faculty and students in which they learned how to become proficient in GIS technologies. Luckily for us, CEITA was now in the third year, or replication phase, of this grant, and they were willing to use the Flint community in order to duplicate the program. Other community partners came onboard as we sought to combine resources and build the program. Mott Community College offered the use of their new computer labs, Esri provided ArcView GIS software and licensing rights, program funding came from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, the Goggins Family Foundation, and Mott College Foundation. Another area nonprofit organization, the Spanish Speaking Information Center, contributed in-kind funds and assistance with youth recruitment. CEITA designed and conducted an intensive two-week Summer Science Camp with the objective of "learning how to utilize GIS in a real-world setting by mapping EPA designated Brownfield sites in the City of Flint, Michigan, using a variety of spatial analysis techniques as well as developing and applying scientific problem-solving skills in the field." GECA provided the overall program development and project management. Twenty youths (ages 14-22 years old) were recruited by flyers distributed in neighborhoods and high schools. It was a diverse group: 14 males and six females, six Hispanic, 10 African-American, and four Caucasian. Two were 14 years old, five were 15, three were 16, two were 17, four were 18, and one each, ages 19-22 years old. Several of the participants were high school dropouts. Amazingly, 14 out of the 20 had never touched a computer before. Pictured at right: Daniel Lopez in Mott Community College computer lab. Photo by Dan Bowers.
There were difficulties to overcome (deficits in basic literacy skills and [non]established work ethics such as punctuality), but the teenagers' pride in their work and sense of accomplishment was self-evident. Three of the dropouts returned to school in the fall including Jimmy Barajas. No one really knows whether the bullet that killed Jimmy was the result of an accident, suicide, or gang-related homicide, but the other "Mappers" and community still mourn the tragic loss of this at risk young man. For more information, please contact Kate Fields, executive director, Greater Eastside Community Association (tel.: 810-233-0507, e-mail: KateFields@aol.com). |