Council votes to continue funding "PopUp" events that provide 'space of belonging' for Sacramento teens
Members of the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allocate $1.3 million from the new Measure U for the Youth PopUp events that offer fun, safe things for teens and their families to do on Friday and Saturday nights.
Tuesday’s vote means the PopUps will continue until June 2020. Surrounded by members of the community and fellow councilmembers before the vote, Mayor Steinberg said he would work to “make this a permanent part of what the City of Sacramento does.”
“This is evidence of what we can do together, and it is the promise of Measure U,” Mayor Steinberg said. “But it’s only the beginning of the promise because we have a lot of work to do.”
The Youth PopUp program was launched by Sierra Health Foundation in December 2018 in response to post-Christmas fights between groups of teenagers at Arden Fair Mall that forced the shopping center to close early. The City joined with Sierra Health to sponsor the events, allocating $1.3 million. Comcast also helped with a $300,000 grant.
Since then, 23 different non-profits have staged more than 450 events on Friday and Saturday nights all around the city. More than 29,000 youth have participated, and many of them have also worked on the events and learned on the job skills. PopUps offer a mix of activities, including recreation, sports, learning, dance, arts, crafts and cultural expression.
They are designed to engage 13-19 year olds, but kids and families outside this range are also welcome.
This Christmas, more than two dozen non-profits offered activities for kids as an alternative to going to the mall, where fights in the days following Christmas had become an annual ritual. Community leaders flooded the social media space with messaging urging parents and kids to seek out these productive venues. There were no significant fights within the mall in the 2019 holiday season, and stores remained open regular hours.
South Sacramento Pastor Les Simmons said the PopUps “have created a space for belonging for our families, for our community, for our neighborhoods.”
“What the PopUp success shows us is that, offered a development opportunity to do right, most of our young people will choose to do what’s right,” said Chet Hewitt of the Sierra Health Foundation.
