Brief Synopsis of the Forming of the Blue Hills Youth Group

By Leigh Blumenthal-Blue Hills Community Service Community Organizer

In 2009, LISC approached Blue Hills Community Services presenting the question that if funding was provided, how we would utilize it in the area of community safety initiatives. Since we felt that mentoring of children (and more specifically, gang prevention) was the one area that was not being addressed properly in Blue Hills, we proposed the idea of a youth program. In discussions with Barry Mayer at the Crime Commission, we discovered he already had a model program waiting to be funded and it seemed like a perfect fit. In the summer of 2011, this initiative became a reality, serving 22 Blue Hills youth during the summer program.