Sacramento city leaders hope more youth programs buck trend of "100 Deadliest Days"
SACRAMENTO – It's the first weekend of summer break for many teens, and the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend is known as the "100 Most Deadliest Days" for youth.
From violent crimes, sideshows, car crashes, and drownings, there is a lot of potential danger when kids no longer have the structure and support of their schools.
"An idle mind's the devil's playground," said Berry Accius, founder of Voice of the Youth. "Our youth will have too much time and they're going to be influenced by a lot more people than their teachers, mentors, parents."
Accius runs a summer youth program to help keep kids out of trouble.
"We're giving them a job, opportunity, youth development, work experience and a stipend throughout the whole process," he said.
Malik Scott is a high school student who's participated in past summer youth programs.
"Sometimes, wherever I go, I might see a few kids getting in trouble here and there," Scott said. "I would like to see more events like sports, camps and stuff like that, basketball, football to keep kids out of trouble."
This year, Sacramento city leaders are budgeting more than a million dollars for those types of youth pop-up events – and another million to fund organizations that work to stop youth violence.
"They are out on the streets every single day doing this work and they're seeing lives change," said Sacramento City Councilmember Rick Jennings.
But some youth program directors say that's not enough and say more money is needed to fund safe activities to keep kids away from gangs, drugs, and violence.
"We have a little money in the pot, but it's not enough for all the kids that are going to need this kind of support this summer," Accius said.
The City of Sacramento says, in the past year, nearly 13,000 kids have participated pop-up events put on by more than two dozen community organizations.
