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Community event looks at ways to stop violence
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.

    Community leaders and residents came together Wednesday night in an NAACP-sponsored meeting to discuss ways to stop youth-sponsored violence.
    The meeting comes on the heels of Friday’s shooting deaths of Virgil Terry, 21, and Alphanzo Pittman, 17, on Hulett Street near Albany Street. Police have not said why the two were shot. Their investigation continues.
    A variety of community agencies attended the meeting, explaining their programs and services.
    Paul Webster, president of the Schenectady Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the only way to break the cycle of violence is through jobs and education. “Our youths need jobs; we need to provide alternatives to these young people,” he said.
    Webster said the NAACP is working with the Building Bridges Program of the Capital District Workforce Development Center and with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 9, to bring job opportunities to at-risk youths.
    “We are not reaching out to the at-risk young people,” Webster said.
    The first program provides apprenticeship training for youths interested in the building trades, and the painters union has promised to provide several summer jobs to atrisk youths, he said.
    Still, these opportunities are not enough, Webster said. “We are not providing enough resources to education and higher education, and we are seeing some of the effects of that now,” he said.
    Webster is statewide director of community outreach for the New York State United Teachers.
    Ed Kosiur, director of the Schenectady County Youth Bureau, said the state has trimmed $35 million from the summer youth employment program, leaving less than $8 million available for upstate programs. The state Legislature is still working on the 2010-11 budget, which is due today .
    As a result of these proposed cuts, Schenectady County’s summer youth employment program has only enough money for 125 positions. Last year, it funded more than 350 positions. .................>>>>.............>>>>............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01500&AppName=1