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Eyes On The Park

Posted by: David Gest
Thanks to: Criminal Justice Journalists
3 February 2006 - 10:00am

Boston's Violence-Free Zone Initiative will put hundreds of children and families in parks in an effort to flush out recent violence.

"A youth group yesterday launched an ambitious program to expand violence-free zones throughout the city, one day after shootings outside a Mattapan community center killed a man and seriously wounded two others.

The initiative is an expansion of a program, started last year, that aims to make parks peaceful settings, offering sports and mentoring to city youth. The idea is to fill parks with families and children and keep criminals away.

By May, hundreds of teenagers, children, men, and women will be playing basketball in Ramsay Park in the South End. Some people will be taught skills by corporate leaders, and disagreements will be resolved through constructive dialogue, not fights and gunfire, predicted Donovan Walker, founder of the Showdown Youth Development Organization, which operates in Roxbury and the South End."

Full Story: Youth group aims to flush fear out of parks across city
Source: The Boston Globe, January 31, 2006
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