Youth Services

Mayor’s Office of Youth Services City Hall – 300 Main Street P.O. Box 5757 North Little Rock, AR 72119-5757 Phone: 501-340-5309 Fax: 501-340-5334 E-mail: youthservices@northlittlerock.ar.gov Blog: www.nlryouthservices.blogspot.com

About the Mayor’s Office of Youth Services:

The Mayor’s Office of Youth Services provides support to the Office of the Mayor, City Council and other city departments on a continuum of issues relating to the city’s youth. The Administrator and staff are responsible for monitoring, centralizing and coordinating the city’s federal, state and local grant operations relevant to youth services and other special projects as assigned by the mayor and/or city department heads. Staff provides research and distribution of current trends among youth in the community to the correct departments. The Mayor’s Office of Youth Services provides an integral function in the reduction of juvenile crime by providing intervention and prevention programming support and consultation to the city’s public, private and faith-based youth service agencies.

In addition to the Mayor’s Office of Youth Services, Mayor Hays appointed the Youth Services Advisory Council (YSAC), which consists of city departments, youth service agencies and social services partners. YSAC meets monthly and deals in a pro-active fashion with problems brought before the council. It is a planning and strategy group that provides a forum for concerns and a center of coordination for the city’s efforts to reduce and eliminate gang participation and gang activities, as well as, to address positive alternatives to promote high school retention, increased graduation rates and improved job readiness. The Council also addresses the issues of truancy, teen drug abuse, graffiti, and discusses innovative ways of meeting the needs of our city’s at-risk youth.

The Mayor’s Office of Youth Services and YSAC’s mission statement is to provide policy leadership and advocacy that improves the health, safety, education and quality of life of children, youth and families in North Little Rock. Over the past five years these two programs have developed a concise community action plan that has proven to alleviate juvenile crime and gang involvement by providing the needs most at-risk youth are seeking. The North Little Rock ACTION plan:

A	-	After School Programming
C	-	Community Oriented Policing
T	-	Teams of Support Groups for Parents and Youth
I	-	In-School Anti-Violence, Bullying and Conflict Mediation Groups
O	-	One on One Mentoring Programs
N	-	Neighborhood Involvement

When was the program created and why?

Mayor Hays, the citizens and public officials of the City of North Little Rock have an abiding concern that its children and young people have every opportunity to become decent, productive, well-adjusted adult citizens. However, gang participation, violence, unemployment, and abuse and neglect are palpable threats to these ideals. For these reasons, the Mayor’s Office of Youth Services was given the mandate by Mayor Hays in late 2000 to develop and implement long-term, organized strategies and comprehensive policies to address local youth related issues.

More than two years ago, Mayor Hays created the Youth Services Advisory Council to foster collaboration and participation among not only city departments, but among youth service delivery and social service agencies to better address the needs of our city’s youth. With the foresight of Mayor Hays and the staff of the Mayor’s Office of Youth Services, they realized that gangs and the insufficiencies that our city’s at-risk youth experience, are community problems. Communities must work together to deal with them; hence, the mayor established YSAC in order for our community to actively compete against negative influences for our youth. One of the mantras of YSAC is: “To beat gangs, you must compete with gangs.” That means we must offer the things that our youth are seeking in anti-social activities, which are: identity, recognition, belonging, discipline, love and respect. It is easy to remember too that many of these kids also belong to the 5-H club. Many are Hopeless, Homeless, Hungry, Helpless and Hug-less. YSAC allows the people, agencies and programs that interact with the youth on a daily basis to come together to discuss the issues facing our youth, and collaboratively work towards effective solutions to meet those needs.

Legislation Pertaining to Youth:

Graffiti Abatement Ordinance declares graffiti, e.g. gang graffiti, tagging, to be a nuisance and a violation of the city’s municipal code. As a practice, any graffiti should be removed promptly. If you or someone else finds graffiti in the City of North Little Rock, you are encouraged to call the city’s graffiti hotline and report the location of the graffiti. The city will remove graffiti located on public property after the Office of Youth Services reads it and records it.

Graffiti Hotline: 501-340-5309

Juvenile Curfew for youth under the age of eighteen (18) is from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. Sunday – Thursday nights, and from 12:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. There is a fine up to $500.00 for curfew violation.

Basketball Goals Ordinance declares the installation and/or use of permanent or temporary basketball goals on public streets and/or public right-of-ways a violation of the city’s municipal code and are prohibited.

Resource Guides

Parent Resource Guide: Children, Youth and Families

Parent Resource Guide: Gangs, Posses, Cliques and Crews

Mayor’s Youth Council
Jan Scholl
Director, Mayor’s Youth Council
Phone: 501-834-3784
E-mail: NLRMYC@aol.com

Blog: www.nlrmyc.blogspot.com

The North Little Rock Mayor’s Youth Council is a community-based youth organization that is made up of North Little Rock youth, ages 14-18, drawn from public and private high schools that serve NLR students. Students are nominated by their school’s principals, teachers, counselors, or by community leaders. Council members are chosen for their dependability, community spirit, and attitude towards others. Last year, 75 council members gave over 10,000 hours of community service.

Youth Programs and Services

Mayor’s Summer Youth Program – The purpose of the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program is to provide work opportunities for high school and college students, ages 16-24, in our community during the summer months in order to gain valuable work experience. To be eligible for the program, the youth must be a full-time high school or college student, a resident on the City of North Little Rock, and not related to any North Little Rock City employee. Generally, applications are accepted between March and April. For more information, please call the Mayor’s Office at 501-340-5301.

North Little Rock Recreation & Community Centers – Located in Glenview, North Heights and Sherman Park, the centers provide a wide variety of activities and services for children and youth, including basketball, cheerleading, dance, drama, football, tennis and summer programs. In addition to physical activities the centers offer educational programs and tutoring. For more information, visit www.nlrpr.org or call 501-791-8543.

NLR Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Renaissance – The Chamber of Commerce’s youth leadership program, Leadership Renaissance, aims to build leaders for the future by focusing on personal leadership skills through activities designed to better acquaint the students with issues of local concern, such as the principles of leadership, team building, city history and government, law and justice, and education and economic development. It is hoped that the young people will make North Little Rock their home and be active participants in the community as adults. For more information, contact the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce at 501-372-5959.

Police Athletic/Activities League (PAL) – PAL is a national organization, but North Little Rock is the only chapter in Arkansas. PAL is a youth crime prevention program that utilizes educational, athletic and recreational activities to create trust and understanding between police officers and youth. Between its two locations in Rose City and Levy, the PAL program offers a wide variety of activities: baseball, micro-soccer, dancing, football, scuba diving, cheerleading, basketball, golf, etc. For more information, contact NLR PAL at 501-537-6208 or visit www.arkansaspal.com.

Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas – With three locations in North Little Rock, the clubs nurture young people’s self-esteem by instilling in them a sense of belonging, usefulness, influence and competence by providing one on one relationships with caring, adult professionals and fun, age appropriate, well-rounded programming. The clubs offer many programs that provide kids with a fun and educational experience, as well as a safe after-school environment. For more information, contact the Boys & Girls Club Main Office at 501-666-8816 or visit www.arclubs.org. The local contact information is below:

Jim Wetherington Club
1212 Jim Wetherington Place, NLR
501-374-0306

Cudellous Hamilton Club
600 North Palm Steet, NLR
501-945-3162

Rose City Club
400 Rose Lane, NLR
501-907-5387

R.O.C.A.N. at Sherman Park – Reaching Our Children And Neighborhoods (R.O.C.A.N.) is an after-school, community-based program with the mission to address the increasing number of youth and children becoming involved in gangs, violence, crime and substance abuse. R.O.C.A.N. provides tutoring, mentoring, and many other positive educational, social and recreational opportunities. Located in Sherman Park, you can call 501-541-1417 for more information or visit www.rocan.org.

STEP Ministries – A faith-based ministry that works in both the school and after-school environments mentoring at-risk school age children and youth in Pulaski County by establishing long term, one-on-one, committed relationships between mentors and students. STEP Ministries also provides abstinence training for the North Little Rock School District. For more information, contact STEP Ministries at 501-758-4054 or visit www.stepministries.org.

YMCA – At the heart of community life in neighborhoods and towns across the nation, the YMCA works to meet the health and social service needs of men, women and children by helping people develop values and behaviors that are consistent with Christian principles. The Heflin YMCA Family Center, at 6101 John F. Kennedy Blvd., offers several academic and sports programs in addition to after school care. For more information, contact the YMCA at 501-758-3170 or visit www.littlerockkids.com.