St. Louis-area officials release plan to stem youth violence

Public officials from the St. Louis region on Tuesday morning released a plan to reduce youth violence over the next three years.

Regional leaders Mayor Francis Slay, County Executive Charles Dooley and East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks in the front row of a press conference announcing a new initiative to address the problem of youth violence. Photo By: KAREN ELSHOUT

The St. Louis Regional Youth Violence Prevention Task Force presented to Mayor Francis Slay’s Commission on Children, Youth and Families a plan to reduce violence through prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry strategies. The meeting took place at the Forest Park Visitor’s Center.

Slay thanked County Executive Charlie Dooley and East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks, who were both in attendance, for taking a regional approach to the issue.

“The factors that really contribute to youth violence are regional issues that we’ve got to work on together,” Slay said. “And if we’re going to have an impact in our community it’s going to be important that we do work together.”

The plan aims to:

• Ensure more young people have access to programs to build job skills;

• Expand access to programs that build resiliency and teach them how to cope with issues such as peer pressure, gangs, violence and drugs;

• Increase access to mental health services;

• Expand the availability of safe places during evenings, weekends and summers;

• Increase alternatives to incarceration and detention;

• Strengthen collaboration and active community policing;

• Reduce young people’s access to firearms and illegal weapons; and

• Strengthen aftercare services to prevent youths who had been in detention from being rearrested.

Youth Violence Task Force Co-Chairs Rev. Starsky Wilson, on left, and Matthew Kuhlenbeck address the audience. Photo By: KAREN ELSHOUT

“As adults we owe it to our young people to give them a fighting chance for a long, fruitful, productive life,” Parks said.

Dwan West, a self-described “survivor” of North St. Louis, said he loved what he heard from the public officials. A union construction worker, West said Tuesday morning’s rain kept him from working so he opted to attend the meeting.

During the question-and-answer portion of the presentation, West stood up and offered his services. After the meeting, he said, “I felt like there was sincerity in the air. … If they’re truly serious about what they’re talking about, I want to be involved.”