Jackson Free Press

Councilman Kenneth Stokes proclaimed at the June 1 Jackson City Council meeting that "kids looking for a job are often turned away and only have the dope lords to turn to." In response, Alfrenett Johnson-Orr, director of the Mayor's Youth Initiative, described her summer tutoring program as a remedy for that concern, asking for City Council to approve the funding for her program.

Johnson-Orr said the program creates six jobs for young people who, in turn, help other youth. Funded by a federal grant in conjunction with the Safe Neighborhood Watch Program, the summer tutoring program has a projected cost of $16,000 per summer. These funds are allotted for payment of the tutors and for all other supplies needed to run the program. The city pays the program's administrators; they are employees of the Mayor's Youth Initiative.

The program tries to prevent crime, starting in the second grade, ending in ninth grade. Johnson-Orr says that she and others from the Mayor's Youth Initiative follow the kids through high school, taking an interest in where they are going to college—"teaching them that there are other environments" and that they can have the better things in life. The program brings in successful adult African Americans, some originally from the students' neighborhoods, as examples of success.

Johnson-Orr emphasizes that the program does not create a false atmosphere for the children. They don't hide difficult school and neighborhood conditions; instead, they try to use a young person's home life as a foundation. Her group wants the children to have goals so that when their father, uncle or someone else asks them to do something illegal, they have the foresight to say, "No I can't be a part of that, I have a goal. I am going to college. I have to study."

After much discussion but without reluctance, the Jackson City Council authorized Johnson-Orr to contract with six tutors for the Safe Neighborhood Watch Program and the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant Program administered by the Mayor's Youth Initiative. The tutors, at least sophomores in a Jackson-area college, are residents of the city of Jackson with a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The tutoring program is operating out of Galloway Elementary. Johnson-Orr was particularly excited about this location because of the daily hot lunches that are part of the Freedom Summer Program. A federal grant pays for several sites in the district to serve free or reduced hot lunches for children up to 18 years old.

Tutoring of 50 young people, started June 7 and will operate through July 23. When Stokes asked for specific examples of positive results from these programs, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. recounted meeting with a group of boys two grades behind in school who spent this past year involved in the Mayor's Youth Initiative—15 of the boys had read 25 books and one had read 67 books. "Some were even talking about college," he said.

Sixteen sites, made up of seven public schools and a variety of community centers and churches, offer activities for kids this summer. In addition to everyday studies, students go places like the Dresden exhibit. Councilman Leslie McLemore proposed that the kids be taken to see the Capitol and also be taken on a tour of area colleges. "You can never start planting the idea of college to early," he said. Ramie Ford, director of the Jackson Department of Parks and Recreation, replied that he would take the children to every college, the Capitol, as well as any and every beneficial site if only they had the money for transportation. It would cost roughly $3,000 for bus rental, bus driver and gas to get them to the Capitol alone.

McLemore said local businesses should help with the costs. "We haven't tapped the business community like we should." He added, "Businesses should be flooding my line, 960-1091!" He said that nickels and dimes have their place, but the children are more important.