Atlanta students aim to reduce teen takeovers by creating safe place to hang out
Social media meetups among teenagers have led to arrests and curfew violations across metro Atlanta this year, but two Atlanta Public Schools high school students say part of the problem starts long before those gatherings, with teens having few safe places to go.
Devin Mitchell, a senior at Daniel McLaughlin Therrell High School, and Haile Irving, a junior at Maynard Holbrook Jackson High School, are hoping to change that with a $50,000 grant from the City of Atlanta.
For Mitchell and Irving, the idea started with something pretty simple: trying to hang out with friends.
"We went to Atlantic Station looking to just have fun without knowing there's a 3 p.m. curfew at Atlantic Station," Mitchell said, "and so in this space we were told we had to leave, but then it's like, at what point did we get to the point where we can't be in social spaces at 3 p.m.?"
The bigger problem, according to Mitchell and Irving, is that teens are running out of places outside of their homes and school to hang out. These are known as "third spaces."
"Because I'm the youngest sibling, I literally saw all my siblings grow and be able to be teenagers and go to the mall and go to the movies without restrictions," Irving said. "But as I progressed in the years, I saw a decline in the third spaces."
They believe when teens have nowhere productive to go, boredom can sometimes turn into trouble, but it's not always black and white.
"You can't look at it at face value," Mitchell said. "You have to break it down into so many different areas and take into account of what their intentions are, what environment they're in, and what they're truly trying to do."
The grant the students received will be used to build The Spot, their vision of a space where teens can hang out safely and lawfully.
"It will be like The Gathering Spot or the YMCA, like a combination of all those third spaces that we know and love, but in a new, innovative way," Irving said.
Their vision is an indoor facility in the heart of Atlanta with a coffee shop, basketball court, workspace, and room rentals for businesses.
The Spot will also not have the same restrictions they said can make other spaces difficult for teens to use.
"We're definitely going to have longer hours on the weekends because that's when you see the teens out, meaning Friday through Sunday," said Irving.
Mitchell and Irving said they are now looking for investors to help take The Spot from an idea to a physical space.
They said they aim to present a proof of concept this fall.
