Group looks to help local youth

PITTSFIELD – Looking to build a better tomorrow, a coalition of city departments, community organizations, and adults and youth from the local community have come together with a common goal.

They hope to develop strategies to empower local youth, facilitate communication between adolescents and adults, demonstrate and teach civic responsibility and increase community accountability.

The group, called the Coalition for Greater Community Collaboration, has organized a free Pittsfield Youth Summit, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Berkshire Community College.

The summit is free to all Pittsfield area youth ages 13 to 20, and free bus transportation will be provided.

It begins at 8:30 a.m. with registration and a continental breakfast, followed by welcoming remarks from Pittsfield Mayor Daniel Bianchi and others.

In cooperation with Healing Winds and a local group that is working to reestablish the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Jayson Williams, a powerful and dynamic motivational speaker will give the keynote talk at the Youth Summit.

Mr. Williams is the author of Humbled: Letters from Prison and speaks to groups about his experiences as a professional basketball player, the decisions and circumstances that ended his career and sent him to jail, and the efforts that he has made at redemption since his release.

After a short break, attendees will have a choice of workshops followed by lunch (provided at no cost to attendees) and another workshop session.

Workshop choices sessions include youth/police relations; health, nutrition and fitness, money management; race and identity; art and music; how to find and keep a job; and more.

In the evening a youth performance at Berkshire Community College will be offered at 8, which is free to attendees and $5 for the general public.

Performers will include Cloud9, Youth Alive, hip hop dancers Mackenzie Buckley and Julius Reese, local singer-songwriter Christine Bile and special guest rappers Buddha Da Great from New York City and Young Gwop Rapper from Hartford, along with others.

The coalition will continue to meet and develop other initiatives to accomplish some of their goals.

Among the projects that have been identified are an adolescent drop-in center, athletic-based mentoring and the reinstatement of the Pittsfield Youth Commission.

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on September 6, 2012. Filed under Community Events,Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry