Highlighting America’s 100 Best Communities for Young People
The 100 Best Communities for Young People competition honors outstanding efforts on behalf of young people by multiple sectors of communities. In cities, suburbs, small towns and counties across the country, this annual competition is leading communities to assess their efforts, work more effectively together for young people, and share best practices. Each week one of the 2007 100 Best Communities will be highlighted in the America’s Promise Bulletin and on our web site.
Little Rock, Arkansas
By Christopher Epps
Most famous for being home to former governor and the 42nd president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, the people in this central Arkansas state capital are deservedly proud of their united efforts on behalf of children and the many resulting achievements.
The youth of today’s communities face a world of challenges, yet this is perhaps even truer of the children in Little Rock than in most places across the country, say those who call this city home. Crime, drugs, gangs and school dropout rates threaten the basic childhood experiences that children everywhere have a right to. Little Rockers, as they're fondly called, work even harder to ensure that their young people aren't cheated out of the opportunities they deserve. That means starting programs like Youth Initiative Projects, a gang intervention model credited with reducing the number of juvenile arrests for violent crime by over 63 percent since 1993. And creating Future Little Rock, a broad-based community dialogue producing increased policing and prosecution, helping to reduce overall juvenile arrests by 50 percent.
The City of Little Rock is dedicated to continuing its investment in its youth and making them a top priority. The funding of the city’s prevention, intervention, and treatment programs is a designated fund derived from a one half-cent sales tax, and over $3 million every year is budgeted for these programs.
One program benefiting from the city’s investment is the Alternative Classroom Experience (ACE) at Joseph Pfeifer Kiwanis Camp. The program, a unique 30-day residential, educational, and wilderness experience in a one-room schoolhouse setting with 88 acres of woods, streams, and mountains, targets approximately 70 fourth and fifth grade Little Rock School District students who are not achieving at their full potential in the traditional classroom.
In addition, adopting the idea that if a child is to be successful, he or she must have a supportive family, the Commission on Children, Youth and Families (CYF) advises and promotes comprehensive and holistic means that reach out to families and their children. CYF believes that families can provide safe, nurturing, drug- and violence-free environments that allow children to grow and develop into Caring Adults.
The children and youth of the City of Little Rock are the beneficiaries of a variety of partnerships among the public, private, faith-based, local school district and municipal government segments of the community.
A few that led to Little Rock’s selection as a two-time 100 Best community include:
New Futures for Youth is a collaborative of public and private, community and institutional representatives committed to improved outcomes for youth. The collaborative facilitates joint planning by community-based organizations, agencies, and institutions regarding strategies for addressing youth issues and finding funds for implementing youth services.
Volunteers in the Public Schools (ViPS) program forges relationships between neighborhood schools and the community-based and business-oriented volunteer population. Each year ViPS hosts Reading Day, an event involving more than 650 adults that volunteer to read stories in every classroom, reaching more than 13,000 students.
Youth Diversity Councils (YDC) allow students to explore various multicultural concepts and strategies while practicing communication, leadership, and conflict resolution skills. An on-going initiative of the Little Rock Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity that promotes inclusion at eight area high schools, the YDC leaders emphasize tolerance, unity, and diversity education among students, faculty, staff, and the administration.