State-Journal.com - Shooting sparks effort to aid teens

The South Frankfort Community Center is seeking a way to keep teenagers off the streets and involved after a shooting rocked the neighborhood earlier this summer.

"The shooting and level of crime in South Frankfort is what we are responding to," said Ed Powe, SFCC vice chairperson.

The SFCC recently got a grant through Kentucky State University to hire an independent contractor to develop a sustainable program for teens.

The organization has been running a 12-week summer program in Dolly Graham Park for years, but has struggled to retain kids beyond their early teen years.

"We've been having this program for years and years and once kids enter the teenage stage we lose them," SFCC chairperson Renee Redding said.

"They don't want to participate in the summer program. They've outgrown arts and crafts. They want more things to do than sitting in the park playing basketball. It's boring for them."

Dr. Jo Sloan, KSU's assistant professor of health and physical education, has been hired to design the new program.

Sloan said she plans on developing a program with activities that interest older youth. She said her vision is to implement a program that educates teens and builds around their career interests.

"The thing is keeping them happy and satisfied as far as activities," Sloan said.

Though school has been out for a month, Sloan said she still plans on starting the program mid-summer. She said she has talked to community members and a Lexington Boys and Girls Club for ideas, mentioning the ropes course at Asbury College, an outdoor team-building course, as a possible field trip.

"Our main focus right now is to reach the students and try to retain them for the time period that's left," Sloan said. "As long as we get them involved and try to keep them involved along the way "that's one of the main focuses."
The SFCC has had to address drug usage and incidents of violence in South Frankfort in the past, Redding said.

"Ten to 15 years ago, there was a lot of drug trafficking in that area," Redding said. "It took a lot of effort from the community to change the kids, and get through to them that, "You have other opportunities.'"

Redding said the SFCC had just held a cookout on the evening of June 4 when gunshots echoed from the corner of East Third and Murray Street.

One man was critically wounded with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. A 20-year-old man that used to live in the neighborhood as an adolescent was charged with the shooting. The same man was also convicted of a shooting that occurred on Ewing Street in 2004.

"Where did he get that idea? What made him do that?" Redding said of the shooting. "Seeing things like that, how does that impact you? It's really a trying time."

Redding said youth in the past have turned to drugs and crime because there was nothing else to occupy them.

"We had kids that wanted to change their lifestyle, but unless you can offer them something, it's hard to get their minds," she said.

"That's our future, and we've got to try to help them through these years."

3.	Posted by L_Chelle21 July 7, 2008
	Actually, I believe several people in that area DID call the police and tell them there had been a man with a gun in the area, only nothing was done about it. Also, the true blame should be placed on the courts and our justice system for letting this boy out after only 4 years when he shot someone and paralyzed him for life! People can only do so much. The citizens tried to warn police but they didn't care until someone was shot. Yes, people are trying to help that area. They are trying to do the right thing but they aren't receiving help. We really need to be on our public officials to go to work for US, not their political interests. Can we please punish someone fitting of their crime and actually make them serve the sentence?!? Then maybe they will learn

1.	Posted by chazrigz July 7, 2008
	They could do a lot if they'd act as a community to go out and make these thugs leave their neighborhoods. They know who these people are, they see what they do, but they don't turn them in, they don't run them out. They glorify the "thug" lifestyle, they listen to music that extols violence and crude behavior, and until the adults in that community make it stop, tell their kids they won't tolerate it and set higher standards then it WON'T stop. No amount of money thrown at it will change it. When every kid has a cell phone then money isn't the problem, culture and attitudes and behavior are the problems! Did they know this kid who did the shooting still had a gun and was threatening people? You bet they did. Did they call the police to have him arrested and taken off their streets? No, and he shot someone else. The community needs to look inward and solve its own problems, not blame them on someone else.