IDAAY and Don't Fall Down in the Hood

Working on campaigns is one continuous contradiction, which is to say that is an amplified/sped up version of life in general. Candidates are at both times selfless and incredibly self absorbed. Those who work in or around politics (as well as the organizations they belong to or control) run the gamut from completely immoral Machiavelli wannabes to unbelievably noble crusaders for justice (most fall someplace in between). And while it is easy enough to get discouraged by the bad side of politics, I stay involved and will continue to stay involved because of all of the amazing people that I meet.

Mike's discussion of the divide between the social justice and progressive youth politics movements brought to mind one of the most inspiring organizations that I crossed paths with during this past cycle: the Institute for the Development of African American Youth (IDAAY) and their program Don't Fall Down in the Hood. Neither IDAAY nor Don't Fall Down in the Hood are focused primarily on politics, they focus on intervention and development amongst young, poor, minority Philadelphians. Here's how IDAAY's site describes Don't Fall Down in the Hood:

Don't Fall Down In the Hood is a city-funded, intensive, community-based program designed to empower adjudicated and/or non-adjudicated juvenile offenders, ages 14-18, that have been arrested on first/second time theft, assault, narcotics, and gun (VUFA) offenses.

IDAAY's strategy is to improve youth competencies, build community accountability incentives, increase community safety, and create meaningful community service opportunities with the aim of reducing their delinquent behavior; to teach them how to take full advantage of available opportunities to improve their life chances; and to help them realize their full potential. This is done by improving academic performance and teaching youth how to become part of the solution in their communities. Youth are referred to the program from Philadelphia Family Court, Youth Study Center, and Youth Aide Panels.

As part of this program IDAAY assigned groups of teenagers from their programs to campaigns. They would typically help out with canvassing, lit drops, and other outreach activity, and they were paid a stipend of between $35 and $75 depending on how long they worked. And while I understand that most progressive groups and political campaigns shy away from paying young people to work, favoring volunteers instead, they really are ensuring that most poorer kids (a very large percentage of young people in Philly) will not get involved in politics (which speaks to the class divide Mike spoke of in his post). Many of these kids had been pulled off of corners where they were slinging drugs, and by giving them an opportunity to make a little money, while giving them hands on experience in transforming their communities/the city in some way, they seem to be able to see a path towards self-improvement that does not involve illicit activities. Also, given the disturbingly high homicide rates amongst minority youth in the city, IDAAY's programs improve the chances that these kids will make it past 25 alive.

I worked with the IDAAY kids a few times during the campaign season, on both the campaign I ran and on my dad's campaign, and each time I was absolutely amazed by the kids, by IDAAY and its amazing founder, Archye Leacock, and staff, espescially Mark Ensley who I had the pleasure of working with directly for a few weeks. The kids would talk with me about their dreams and aspirations, from their hopes of attaining higher degrees, to their desire for jobs and sports programs that would keep them off the streets and from slinging drugs, and their incites into why the city has so many problems, most notably crime. Each one of the kids seemed to want one thing over everything else: someone to tell them that they are a good kid, who could look past what they often thought of as a rough exterior, and who could give them the positive attention they seemed to crave so badly.

All-in-all, my experiences with IDAAY reaffirmed my desires to do outreach aimed at young people, though my ideas for what that outreach should look like have changed a bit from the experience. I saw firsthand the need to couple whatever youth political outreach efforts that I take on in the future (including the venue project that I still am pushing to make happen) with social justice and youth intervention efforts. In a city so overcome by crime and poverty, it seems wrong to separate these two interconnected movements.