Community Centers

Team Justice has been contacted by a young person in Biflo Florida. He is concerned that there are no cultural things for young people to do in the area and is afraid it will lead to gangs and juvenile delinquency. He has asked us to speak for the community of Biflo in a bid to establish a community center or youth services activity programs.

That is a bit outside our scope of experience. I have run some classes for community services before in the past, even headed a npo council at one point. But have never started a community services department. I am sure there is tons of legal crap, politician glad handing and general rubbing elbows with the right people. So who are those people? Do I need to speak to the Mayor of Biflo? The Sheriff? The County Commissioner?

I'm a little lost for a place to start at. Anyone have any experience with this sorta thing?

It seems like there is already a community center...
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I would say talk to the city council, maybe the mayor. There seems to hardly be any information online about this place though, so it might be hard to get in touch with anyone.

~Rogue

hmm... I'll look into that. Thanks Rogue.

I have an appointment to speak to the director of community services where I live next week. I'll try to pick her brain a bit.

damn, they bitch at each other more than we do...

If things don't work out with the city making one they can always try to contact a nonprofit in Orlando that might be willing to help start or run one. Or perhaps business people in the city who want to branch out or are run by philanthropic people. Don't know if they might want to contact these people: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

~Rogue

Thanks Rogue. You are very helpful. Are you in Florida by any chance?

No, I'm in Kentucky for the time being. I've done some nonprofit work, especially with community involvement and working with kids, so I'm interested to see how this works out.

~Rogue

Excellent. I will keep this thread posted as it comes together.

We Badly need one as of now We havent had one in over 10 years and crime has been on the rise scince the old one was shut down and demolished It had the soup kitchen and the thrift store where I worked as well kids after school program I had it as an anti bully program for the kids who were in need of someone to talk to Alot of kids made friends this way and alot of former bullies even defended the very same kids they used to pick on themselves when other bullies moved in on them It also served as the school emergency evacuation center through out numorus fire drills when it was too cold to just stand out side in winter and durring the mid 90s when pulling false alarms a bombthreats seemed to be the latest fashion in what the bullies from the high school thought were practical jokes after the "Sneak up on kids and push them down" and the "Throw rocks at small kids" style of bullying" grew old

The old Salivik Community center had many christmas and other seasonal parties over the years On any given day you could come in a grab a coffee and snack if you were hungry and it was cold out The Thrift store also had a large box for toys that went out to kids who were tramatised by trumatic events anything from the death of a family member or friend to a case of abuse My co worker was a very good person to work with and her daughter who was 2 when I first met them was a big help Like her brother who is a member of the local RCMP she loved to help people Sadly 3 years after we first met her very jelous boyfriend who was also the father of the child not only tossed their christmas tree out the window and tried to make my life a living hell because I refused to quit my job dragged her home and Strangled her with a phone cord She died before the police could do anything to save her I am very glad that guy got a life sentence in the Maximum security pen in Kingston Ontario As it is He has scince then tried numorus times to get an early parol but has been repeatedly denied We are in the planning stages of a new Community center Im hoping to get the city to name it the Sara Akavak Center if I get the permission from her family after My late Co worker and very good friend

Since this thread is not news related, I am moving it from the News section to the Training section.

How did it get in the news section. I started it in the lounge...