Teens call for trauma counseling services

Yawu Miller

Police, media and city officials have zeroed in on the 75 homicides that were committed in 2005, asking probing questions about the low case-clearance rate of the homicide squad, the proliferation of guns in the community and the efficacy of the city’s crime strategies.

Wendy Geronimo, a peer leader at the Whittier Street Health Center, wants the city to focus on what happens to the parents, siblings, children and friends of the victims. Speaking before a panel of elected officials of color and an audience of black, Latino and Cape Verdean community activists, Geronimo articulated her concerns.

“There’s a lot of violence going on,” she said. “The youth are going through a lot of pain and they’re not getting any services.”

The call for grief counseling is one of eight priority items the elected officials have targeted in their strategy for violence prevention. The items were culled from focus groups held in a January community meeting where teen activists, youth workers, ex-offenders and others who turned out to discuss solutions to the problem of growing crime and violence in the city.

Other calls to action the officials listed were:

• For men and women of the community to involve themselves in the lives of the children of the community through volunteer activities with established youth programs.

• For churches to provide space for youth drop-in centers with the aim of providing adult-supported time off the streets.

• For the mayor and school superintendent to implement a peace curriculum in elementary schools, teaching Boston children to value peace from an early age.

• For the mayor and police commissioner to increase the number of officers of color on the homicide, drug and gang units in the police department, hire more officers of color and promote more officers of color to command positions.

• For the mayor, City Council, governor and state Legislature to develop an economic strategy to provide full employment for youth and to eliminate the barriers to employment created through CORI requirements.

• For elected officials, clergy and leaders of community-based organizations to communicate and collaborate on a regular basis.

• For youth organizations to develop a list of services needed by youth.

At last week’s meeting, groups of teens from organizations including Whittier Street and Teen Empowerment outlined some of their recommendations for services.

“We need to create opportunities for youth who are not in programs,” said Amilton Pires, a student at West Roxbury High School’s Brookfarm Academy. “The teens who are out there committing violence are not being engaged.”

Pires also repeated a priority identified by teens in the January meeting — for unstructured safe spaces for teens to hang out in.

“A lot of times youth just want a place where they can hang out,” he said.

The elected officials say they plan to take the agenda items to community-based agencies and city officials to discuss implementation.

“We’re going to make contact with the various entities and ask them to take action,” said City Councilor Chuck Turner. “What we put there are achievable goals. Obviously full employment is not in the same framework as trauma services. But I think it’s part of a healthy process.”

Turner said the elected officials planned to meet with Mainstreets program directors in the city to discuss the possibility of finding jobs for teens with local businesses. They will also meet with health centers to talk about trauma services and meet with the mayor, police commissioner and school superintendent on other agenda items.

Turner said the end result should begin to help alleviate some of the problems teens are facing.

“What’s important is for all of us to realize that these problems didn’t get created in a minute,” he said. “We see this as just the start of a process that’s related to the general health of the community.”