Empowering Youth in Portland: A Summer of Learning and Change

This summer, Rose City Self-Defense (RCSD), Safe Blocks, and the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) collaborated with WorkSystems Learn & Earn to host three youth interns from the Lents Youth Initiative (LYI). The interns, all teens from the LYI program, spent 45+ hours learning leadership skills, building soft skills, and gaining environmental stewardship and career development through the Youth Empowerment Series. The main goal of the internship was to provide youth with training and insight on government processes involved in making a neighborhood a safer place to live and play.

Key Takeaways:

• The Lents Youth Initiative (LYI) summer internship program provided 45+ hours of leadership training, soft skills building, environmental stewardship, and career development through the Youth Empowerment Series.
• The program aimed to provide youth interns with training and insight on government processes involved in making a neighborhood a safer place to live and play.
• Interns participated in a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)-based assessment of Lincoln Park in Hazelwood, a Safe Blocks Place-Based Violence Intervention Project neighborhood.
• Interns presented their CPTED recommendations to the community at Sunday Parkways in Lincoln Park in July, using a dotting activity to capture people's initial reactions.
• The internship included multiple field trips to compare and contrast publicly controlled spaces for feelings of safety, peace, and accessibility.
• WorkSystems Learn & Earn hired the youth interns to lead projects and collectively contribute thousands of hours to projects that benefit the neighborhood.
• ROSE Community Development Corporation, an OVP Safer Portland grant recipient, operates LYI.
• The internship took place at LYI's location in Powellhurst-Gilbert, one of three Safe Blocks Place-Based Violence Intervention Project neighborhoods.

Statistics:

• 3 youth interns from LYI participated in the summer program.
• 45+ hours of leadership training were provided to the youth interns.
• Thousands of hours were collectively contributed by the interns to projects benefiting the neighborhood.
• The program included multiple field trips to 6 different publicly controlled spaces.
• Interns learned about CPTED concepts and applied them to an assessment of Lincoln Park in Hazelwood.

Sources:

• "Portland: The City of Portland, Oregon has issued the following news release..." (Source: Self-published press release, no date)