Sacramento (April 15, 2022)

Friends-

The horrific gun battle on K Street that killed six people earlier this month has reignited calls for increased city spending on youth programs – particularly for those aimed at preventing gun violence.

While all of those arrested so far in connection with the incident are adults, there’s a direct connection between such shootings and the lack of hope, adult guidance and opportunity that so many children growing up in our neighborhoods experience.

I ran for mayor largely on the idea that we need to invest more in underserved neighborhoods and young people. This was the central theme of my successful campaign in 2018 to raise the Measure U sales tax by a half cent – to a full penny – and devote the bulk of that second half cent to investing in our community needs.

Since then we have dramatically increased our spending on youth. What was once a secondary budget item is now a major city priority. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year that ends June 30, we will spend $38.2 million on programs directly serving youth, the highest amount ever. About 85 percent of that spending comes from the general fund, mostly from Measure U. The rest is coming from our federal Covid relief funding.

Back in 2017, the city had no department that specifically focused on youth. In 2018 we restructured the parks department and renamed it the Department of Youth, Parks & Community Enrichment. We hired a new Youth Development Policy Manager.

We now fund a broad array of programs designed to give young people safe spaces to have fun, connect them with adult mentors, teach them life skills and help them obtain work experience. Young people in our city can attend free “pop up” events around the city every weekend. They can ride RT for free, a city investment to make it easier for kids without cars to get to school, enrichment activities, internships and jobs.

We used our Covid relief funds in 2020 to train more than 425 young people in a range of disciplines: entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, web design, community health and the building trades among them.

The City Council has approved additional funds that will be programmed in the coming months, including $7.75 million to continue successful workforce training efforts and $2.5 million to add youth programming at the Marina Vista-Alder Grove housing projects.

Community-based organizations that work directly with at-risk youth will receive $2.5 million in violence prevention grants from the city this year. These organizations do hard work that often goes unrecognized, working directly with young people who without intervention are at risk of going down a road that leads to violence or incarceration.

Recipients include Brother to Brother, whose 15 mentors use their lived experience with gangs and the criminal justice system to help mentor more than 50 boys and men ranging from 11 to 40 years old in north Sacramento and Del Paso Heights. In addition to mentoring, Brother to Brother works with police to respond to violent and potentially violent situations and intervene to defuse tension. Brother to Brother is part of the recently formed Safe Sac Coalition, which includes groups serving neighborhoods throughout the city.

“Our biggest value was shown after this recent shooting where we were able to get to some of the members of the rival gangs and talk them into not retaliating,” Brookins said, adding, “Simply put, we are community-led public safety.”

The challenge and opportunity for us today is to expedite and elevate our work with violence prevention groups like Brother to Brother and to place early investment in the future of our children at the center of our city’s budget. We know that budgets are cyclical, and we need to make sure the dollars going to support youth programs today aren’t the first thing cut when budget times get tough.

I’m working with the Sac Kids First coalition, Councilmember Jay Schenirer, Councilmember Mai Vang and others on a ballot measure that would create a permanent source of funding for youth. Our commitment would complement the efforts of partners such as the school districts, Sacramento County, our community-based organizations and the state and federal governments.

We need to make sure every young person growing up in our city has safe, enriching and healthy things to do when they’re not in school. The need is great, and we have a long way to go. But the past few years have shown that we can bend the arc of our city’s spending priorities toward the children and young people who are the future of Sacramento.

Your mayor,

Darrell Steinberg