To Move Wilmington Forward Tomorrow, Invest in Our Youth Today
The other day I was walking down Washington Street when I ran into a young man who was once a student at Delaware Elite, the nonprofit I co-founded ten years ago.
I first met this young man when he was in middle school. He was raised by his grandmother with no support from his parents. He was a good kid trying to make it out of a tough situation, but he struggled in school.
Delaware Elite helped to provide this young man with a safe and productive environment to realize his potential, and we pushed him to excel in the classroom as well as on the basketball court. Now he’s at a small college in South Carolina that I helped him get into.
So when I saw him on 9th and Washington, I asked him how long he was home for.
“I’m only home just to visit family and then I’m back out of here,” he said “There’s too much going on in Wilmington, and the only thing to get into is trouble.”
This is another young man who refuses to ever move back to our city.
We can do more to help ensure that our children are safe and secure after school by investing in our community centers and after-school programming.
Unfortunately, this story is all too common in Wilmington. How many of us know family and friends who used to live in Wilmington but moved out to Pike Creek, or Middletown, or Bear?
Enough is enough. We cannot play politics as usual anymore.
Right now our city is not living up to its promise. Too many communities in Wilmington are struggling under the weight of crime, drugs, and intergenerational poverty. And those hurt most by all this are our children.
The time for talking about change is over. We need comprehensive solutions to address the very serious problems facing our city. This is why I have already released two policy plans that outlined dozens of proposals and initiatives that will improve public safety and economic opportunity. But we can still do more.
We need a city that’s engaged with everyone regardless of age, race, neighborhood, or socioeconomic status.
These are proposals that rise above politics and that everyone should be able to agree upon.
Our school districts may be outside outside the control of the mayor and city government, but that shouldn’t stop us from coming together to speak with one voice to advocate for our children as representatives in Dover debate redistricting plans here in Wilmington.
We can do more to help ensure that our children are safe and secure after school by investing in our community centers and after-school programming.
We can do more to help connect our families and community groups to resources that are available and give them the support that they need, whether it’s help locating affordable daycare, finding a job, accessing mental health services, or help repairing a broken streetlight.
Wilmington needs ambitious solutions more than ever.
We can build a better city, block by block, by collaborating with neighborhood groups, civic associations, and local businesses to increase participation in the Adopt-a-Block program.
Over the past year, I’ve been told that these plans are too ambitious.
To that I say, Wilmington needs ambitious solutions more than ever.
Not that long ago, Wilmington’s youth had access to some of the best community centers and youth programming in the area. As a young man I went to Peoples Settlement over on the East Side. It kept me and my friends safe and out of trouble. Peoples Settlement is still there, but many other community centers have closed, leaving too many children on the street.
As a young man 20 years ago, I enrolled in a summer workforce development program here in Wilmington that set me up with an internship at Skadden Arps. This changed the direction of my life. The program taught me soft skills such as working in teams, shaking hands, and clear communication.
But the program no longer exists for this generation of young people.
This program was possible because of partnerships and collaboration, and that is what I will bring to city government. We will do more to build partnerships with community groups, civic associations, faith-based organizations, and the business community to develop programs that work for you.
We live in a great city, the fabric of which is stitched together by 71,948 individuals, 42 neighborhoods, and 47 civic associations — all of which sits on just 11 square miles of land. In these close quarters, neighbors become more like family.
So let’s support this family and give our children all the opportunities they need to turn dreams into reality.
Eugene Young is the Advocacy Director at Delaware Center for Justice and candidate for Mayor of Wilmington.
You can read the full policy plan at his website: www.eugeneyoungformayor.com
