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Youth Make A Community Need Their Own
Our youth captured national attention recently when their plans to revitalize a neighborhood park for sports and activities with and for other youth was chosen as one of the top 100 finalists in the Case Foundation’s Make It Your Own grant award. Judges from across the county selected their project, “No Dealers = No Drugs,” because it had a clearly defined idea of what they wanted to accomplish and because they have a firm belief that they can change their community through their actions. If you are going to do a click here for more, this might be a good place to put it? In the initial proposal the youth submitted in August, they write:
“We are 15 youth between the ages of 14 and 18, who live in North Camden, NJ, one of the most drug-ridden neighborhoods in the country. Our neighborhood is not lost though, because we have the power to change it. We will transform a park our city has neglected and that is trashed with litter and graffiti. We will make it a place where youth are role models for other youth. We will create a space where youth lead activities which promote nonviolence, common sense, education, faith and success. Basketball is a way of getting youth who are likely to become involved with the drug trade interested and active in our group. By doing this, we hope to free our community of drugs by eliminating the drug dealers.”
Being one of the top 100, our youth now have the opportunity to compete for up to $35,000 to help them get going. Generously, the Case Foundation has provided them with a proposal coach to assist them in the final project, $100 in startup money, and a website to showcase their efforts and with which they can raise donations to fund their activities. Three young leaders, Danny, Edwin and Anthony, have stepped up and started working on the final proposal. Their energy and enthusiasm for the project has injected new life into that which started nearly five months ago. We are eager to see the results of their hard work and are certain that their efforts will be very beneficial for North Camden.
Please visit http://miyo.casefoundation.org/no-dealers-no-drugs to read the youth’s entire initial proposal, see photos of their work and make a contribution directly to their project. (Special note for all MySpace, Facebook and other social networking site users: The link above includes a ChipIn widget that you can add to your personal page to help the youth gain attention for their project. To add it to your page, click the “Share” tab next to the “Info” and “About” tabs.)
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