"We are the PeaceMakers, seeking peace in our community. We are the PeaceMakers, spreading love, hope and unity. Those words are from the first verse of the Akron PeaceMakers theme and is also the reason we are all gather here today.

Hello, my name is Tanzania Johnson and I am a PeaceMaker. I would like to welcome you all to the first ever report about how we and our peers feel about the community we live in.

I would now like to introduce Mr. Billy Soule, Assistant to the Mayor for Community Relations and the coordinator of the PeaceMakers, Mrs. Willa Keith.  

MR. SOULE & MRS. KEITH

Mr. Soule speaks

Mrs. Keith speaks and turns it over to Tanzania

TANZANIA

Thank you, Mrs. Keith. Next is Dominique Council  with "Who are the PeaceMakers"

Who are the PeaceMakers?

With these objectives in mind, the Mayor’s Office for Community Relations launched the PeaceMakers program in 2008. It is a youth civic/anti-crime program for high school students where they learn, during an eight week orientation, how government and community organizations work together to provide services for the citizens of Akron.

The goal of PeaceMakers is to involve young people in community activities by coming together at least once a month to discuss community issues and to promote positive interactions with law enforcement. PeaceMakers also see firsthand the workings of the juvenile court system and learn about their rights as citizens.

Six classes of PeaceMakers have graduated, bringing the total to more than 80 high school students, who have dedicated themselves to making Akron a stronger and safer community.  

Although we may think we can, we cannot obtain these goals by ourselves. We wish to thank those who have supported PeaceMakers and who have taken their valuable time to mentor us through this exciting, new program. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company deserves special thanks for believing enough in the program to make a significant contribution during the program’s infancy. It is greatly appreciated.

We also thank Info Line, United Way, the Akron Board of Education and the Akron Public Schools along with: the Akron Urban League; Summit County Juvenile Court; the Akron Police Department; the Akron Fire Department; Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander; Acme Fresh Market and the Akron Bureau of Recreation.

Last, but not least, we wish to thank Mrs. Keith and Mr. Soule for their hard work and for truly caring about us and our futures.

I would now like to introduce Richard Bradley, who will share some highlights of 2008.

PeaceMakers Highlights of 2008

I would like to give you the highlights and the events that the PeaceMakers were involved during 2008.

LASER QUEST!  LASER QUEST!  LASER QUEST!

Although we all had a great time at our end of the year outing at Laser Quest, we were also involved in some very rewarding projects and events.

For the past 25 years the first Tuesday in August has been the day that thousands of citizens across the United States take a stand against crime and violence in their neighborhoods and participate in the National Night Out Against Crime. In 2008, nine Akron neighborhoods participated holding rallies, marches and other community events and the PeaceMakers were available at each site assisting where ever they was needed.

I helped out in Goodyear Heights and enjoyed my experience, but adults sure know how to work a guy.

Then on September 11^th, 23 PeaceMakers was honored to be a part of the "9-11 Commemoration" held at the High Street Christian Church.

A few weeks later, five PeaceMakers were heard worldwide when they were interviewed on radio by British Broadcasting Corporation as a part of their "Talking America Tour 2008". They shared the views about politics, education and the economy.      

PeaceMakers also conducted a Red Ribbon Week project in all Akron high schools; signing up more than 2,500 teenagers who pledged to not use drugs or alcohol and to stay violence free. Of  course, PeaceMakers made that pledge too.

We also were on hand to assist Akron elementary students and their families at the Mayor’s Annual Holiday Art Reception.  The guests were able to view the beautiful work of the children and "we" I mean the kids, got a chance to visit with Santa.

And then there was Laser Quest where we were all on a mission to show Mrs. Keith that she’s not as tough as she says.

The PeaceMakers had a great 2008 and we look forward to continuing our community involvement and starting some new projects of our own.

What is this report about? This Report to the Mayor and to the Akron community is designed to shed light on the state of youth in our city. It will discuss how our young people feel about Akron and their future here. Some of what the PeaceMakers have found may be considered predictable and applicable to teenagers in most American cities. That does not and should not diminish in any way the forces affecting the future of our community as they incubate in our youth under such difficult economic conditions.

Keirra

PeaceMakers class members also wanted to report their work to Mayor Don Plusquellic and the community of Akron as a way to track the progress of this new program. The students all feel it is important to be open to the city and the community of people who support them in this endeavor; thus, we wanted to make this report a public document.

Jordan

To produce the Report to the Mayor, the members of the PeaceMakers classes from 2008 gathered information from their peers throughout our city by circulating questionnaires asking young people to answer questions about positive and negative aspects of life in our community. PeaceMakers received more than 200 replies.

Keirra

Students were asked about public safety, economic opportunity, recreational activities, and facilities for entertainment. PeaceMakers were especially concerned with their reflections on school, substance abuse and violence in the community.

Jordan

It was equally important to us, as a group, to understand what other youth see as the importance of relationships with adults and how to improve upon those. PeaceMakers were curious, too, after learning what they did about government, to find out what others in their age group knew about government services, and what ideas they may have to make government work better for the youth of our city.

Keirra

Mrs. Keith and Mr. Soule, from The Mayor’s Office of Community Relations, guided us through the year with compassion and a firm hand. It was their suggestion that we also include in this report what we as young people can do to contribute to a stronger, safer and better community; one of greater opportunity. That will be addressed as well in this report.

Jordan

Before we discuss some of what we learned, PeaceMakers feels it is important to mention that in this report, we focus on the community in which we live. We do not address other important forces that affect quality of life, such as the current national economy. It must be stated, though, that the stress the economy has on families has a considerable impact on how many young people view the future. All the more important, we feel, that our more immediate world is safe and nurturing.

Keirra

The Akron PeaceMakers now presents its "Report to the Mayor"

CARA PARKER & ROWAN MATNEY

Education and School Safety

Rowan and I will be giving the report on how our peers feel about the education we are getting and how safe do we feel in ours. PeaceMakers found it interesting that the number one issue our fellow students cited as a problem in education was a lack of effort by students in school. Violence, fighting and school safety were second on the list of concerns in this category.

One student aptly wrote: "I would love to sit in one of my classes without interruptions and be able to learn something to broaden my horizons and build on to my knowledge."

The interruptions, others told us, interfere with a good learning environment. Encouragingly, more students than not agreed that the most important thing their school could give them was a good, healthy education, both academically and socially.

Teachers, for the most part, are respected by our respondents. "I have a very positive relationship with my teachers," wrote one student. "I know I can talk to them and trust them. They respect me just as much as I respect them, which is a lot. It’s a healthy adult/student communicative relationship."

PeaceMakers was impressed that the real sense of the quality of our schools was positive. We wonder that, perhaps listening, reading and watching too much television news has skewed everyone’s perception of this.

Rowan

Not that there aren’t significant issues to focus on every single day. Violence in schools is a serious enough problem to have warranted a number of mentions in our surveys. Most students, however, said they felt safe at school. A number of them want to see tighter security in schools, though, as part of improving the overall learning environment. Despite what appears to be a heightened sense of concern in the past several years due to terrorist threats and mass shootings in schools, some of our peers commented on how "easy" it was for strangers to enter their school buildings.

In 57 surveys of our peers, 11 students admitted to fearing for their physical safety while in school, from time to time. Seventeen students said they had been involved in a physical altercation in school within the past year. And half of the respondents said they have been victimized by bullying.

Disturbing was the number of youths, 12 of 57, who said they have witnessed student-on-teacher violence in their school. Equally troubling was that well over half of those asked if they knew someone had come to school with a weapon, would they turn them in, said they would not mention this to someone in a position of authority at their school.

Suggestions were made to us about employing metal detectors in all schools or adding more police officers. Clearly, something must be done, and PeaceMakers is willing to be a part of a solution. In fact, just being a part of this group is taking a significant step toward a solution, in our opinion.

We should note here that it was heartening to read the number of positive comments across the board from students concerning how hard their teachers are working to provide them with an education. One student told PeaceMakers, "(My) school is filled with motivation, perseverance and opportunities both academic and non-academic."

Cara

The list of concerns also included, in order of importance:

• lack of adequate facilities;
• lack of funding/budget cuts;
• drug and alcohol use, and overcrowding in classrooms.

Each of these, in its own way, serves to detract from the overall learning experience. Some young people are more resilient than others and seem to do well academically despite these concerns as they have been expressed. Others, however, told PeaceMakers that the budget problems, substance abuse and facilities issues are detractors for them.

PeaceMakers also notes that:

• The City of Akron and the schools in our community are acknowledging and addressing the facilities issue by renovating or rebuilding all public school buildings over a 15 year period. 

• Mayor Don Plusquellic has been, and now Governor Ted Strickland is, working on a new, fairer way of funding public education in Ohio. 

• Battling drug and alcohol use in schools is an ongoing social/community-wide problem affecting nearly everyone in one way or another.  Schools are also victims of this.

• Overcrowding in classrooms should be alleviated with the availability of new facilities.  We have learned lately, though, constantly shifting population and enrollment has made this a challenge; one the Akron Board of Education is addressing with the closing of five schools.

Rowan

Aside from what we have mentioned above, there were the fairly routine complaints by some students about rules for dress and overall appearance. Historically, we understand, such issues have been around probably as long as public education has been around.

Overall, our impression from sampling opinions about education is that while there is concern about the seriousness of violence and personal safety, a greater concern may be the sheer frequency of less serious incidents in the classroom that end up a barrier to the learning process.

PeaceMakers believes we must achieve an understanding to resolve this problem. Students must agree to be more cooperative, and perhaps schools can employ more strict discipline on those who are disruptive.

"Travis and I will be reporting on how our peers perceive the Akron Community and how safe we feel inside our homes, while out shopping or going out with our friends. Pursuing answers to the larger questions of how do young people like their community, do they feel safe in it and what can be done to make it better was challenging.

PeaceMakers found there are many layers to a community and many opinions about quality of life issues facing Akronites. Answers were very diverse from the pool of 1400 responses we received.

We pursued answers to questions dealing with the community itself; the government, its role in our lives and in providing resources for our use such as recreational facilities. Given that relationships between young people and adults are often strained, we wanted to know how youth feel about the adults in their lives and about how they treat young people…but we also thought it important to ask what young people can do to play a role in improving these relationships for their own good and the good of our city as a whole.

Travis

Community safety was on our minds, too, in these queries. Given that safety in school was a significant concern, PeaceMakers wanted to know how safe young Akronites feel outside of school, inside the city.

Just about half of those we surveyed felt strongly that they were safe in their homes.  Fewer than half, though, had that strong agreement when asked if they felt safe going to youth activities such as sporting events, dances and other things. Overall, though, the feeling seems to be that Akron is a safe place to live and play.

Youth seem to view our police as good authority figures that they look at with respect. They respect the job our police are doing and most agree the image of police in Akron is good. And police, they believe, are up against difficult odds when dealing with children. This is reflected in the numbers showing that nearly half of our respondents felt too many kids have access to weapons and that having a gun does not protect young people from violence.

When asked if they were more afraid of young people than adults, those questioned came down about even with roughly half in each category.

The good news seems to be, in our opinion, that most students admit to not only knowing what their rights are and what is expected of them as a citizens of this city, but most told us they know how to respond if stopped by a police officer. We found that encouraging because police have told us that kids automatically get themselves into more trouble by not responding appropriately.

A few students from schools that have typically a low incidence of violence said they felt police should spend less time in our schools and more time on the streets of our neighborhoods. And one 12^th grader told us, "You never see police in neighborhoods, just on main streets."

Dao

Our peers were concerned with driver safety, recreation centers for children to keep them occupied in a healthy way, and even inquired about how they could help: "Are there any groups that we can join to help make a safer community," asked one senior.

It is clear to us that young people, for the most part, want to make a difference. They want to contribute to the overall good of the community. But, they may lack guidance and direction in how to do that. It is why, we feel, Mayor Plusquellic’s effort with PeaceMakers is so important. The more students we gather over the years in this project, the better chance Akron has of being a better city with an even greater sense of community.

Some of our best responses came in the category of community services and government. They show an interest in participation and ask that Akron be more "teen friendly" with "more new programs for teens" and a greater effort toward government involving "youth in more of their decisions."

• Having been through a community orientation, we know the city leaders are trying to address all of the above issues and concerns
• Government leaders have been good about creating neighborhood community centers and Community Learning Centers.  Perhaps better, stronger youth programming is needed
• Mayor Plusquellic’s work on creating all new schools and on supporting public education have gone a long way toward making young people feel included

Travis

The very core of who we are as a city, we believe, rests in the relationships we have with each other. Adults could do a better job, we think, relating to young people and vice versa. When asked what adults can do to better their relationships with youth, we heard that adults should "teach not preach." "Adults," one said, "can strive to listen and relate to the youth rather than dictate to them.   Not all youth seek counsel, but many appreciate having one adult figure they can depend on and go to for direction or even just to listen to their problems."

"Adults can become more involved with you," another wrote, "listen to them; guide them to help make a better relationship."

When asked to turn the question around and create ways of their own to improve relationships with grownups, we found these responses: "We need to talk to and relate to kids younger than we are."; "I feel youth can make their relationships with adults better by respecting them more than they do."; "Youth could be more respectful to adults period and/or anyone that’s consider their elder. I’ve noticed in the community children and teenagers barely respect their parents."

Dao

Respect for others was a theme repeated throughout much of our community surveys. That made this process for us rewarding and a wonderful learning experience. Finding out that many of our fellow students want to see more young people take part in helping others through volunteer work and by "giving them the love and care they never had" as one person wrote, couldn’t help but make us proud of our peers.

As we mentioned before, it has crossed our collective minds that the images and portrayals of young people in the media, generally does us very little good as members of this group. Those who try hard and work hard receive little public recognition in the media. Perhaps, we thought, that this is because we are expected to be good; the kids who make the news are still the exception to the rule, maybe. All in all, we find it frustrating in many ways.

• The City of Akron and Mayor Plusquellic honor hundreds of young people each year through the Global Youth Service Day project
• The Mayor’s Holocaust Arts and Writing event showcases some of our brightest young people every year
• Lock 3’s Summer Arts Experience, created by the City government, is a wonderful project designed to find hidden artistic talent within our schools
• The Holiday Art exhibit in Akron City Hall each Christmas allows young children to have recognition for their fun, holiday art

Travis, just a slight change from the first version

These projects and events show that adults are trying to recognize youth for the many good things they do. The bigger hurdle is finding ways to convey these stories to the larger community.

In conclusion, we find that teenagers in our city want to have a voice that means something when it comes to issues that affect them. They want effective, fair rules in their schools; not punishing all for the few. They want to be challenged in their courses and they want it done by well-prepared teachers. They want a true student council; one to which administrators actually listen.

In conclusion, we find that teenagers in our city want to have a voice that means something when it comes to issues that affect them. They want effective, fair rules in their schools; not punishing all for the few. They want to be challenged in their courses and they want it done by well-prepared teachers. They want a true student council; one to which administrators actually listen.

Students tell us they want their schools to follow-up on complaints of bullying, teasing or sexual harassment and not chalk it up to simply "kids being kids."  They also want to be able to trust adults to keep the complaints confidential so there may be no retaliation.

Young people in Akron want to feel safe in their school buildings. They want administrators to know who they are allowing to enter the building. Security procedures are not being followed. They've witnessed it.

The PeaceMakers group wants this Report to the Mayor to be a tool to help make changes to the problems identified within.  Youth need adult volunteers to help implement and staff after-school programs at community centers; not just athletic events but arts, dance, hobbies, etc.

Young people in our community want to help the police educate all school-age children on the dangers of guns and violence through safety education programs like anti-bullying and gun safety and how to respond to law enforcement when young people come into contact with them.

They also want business owners of malls, teen clubs and other teen hang-out spots to work together with them to come up with teen safe and business safe policies that work for all involved. 

Bottom line: they want to help keep Akron strong and safe. They know they can make a difference if adults show them how and allow collaboration between the generations.

Going Forward- What happens after this report? The future of our community will, in our opinion, be more positive if young people are part of the solution and part of the discussion. The PeaceMakers program makes that more possible than ever before. We now have in place a growing group of young people within the community who are motivated to help and enthusiastic about spreading the word to their peers.

We believe it is essential that we grow this group by passing on to our younger brothers and sisters, for instance, the value of giving back and making contributions to the betterment of the community. In other words, be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.

In the words of Henry Ford, an American industrialist and pioneer in his field, "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

We aren’t sure just what the mayor envisioned for the future of PeaceMakers, but we would like to use the word that he often uses when describing projects in the city that are successful over a long period of time: "We want PeaceMakers to be a sustaining program and one that is still around when we are his age!

This is "OUR"  report on youth in the City of Akron.

Thank you.

Please welcome the Mayor of the City of Akron, Donald L. Plusquellic

TANZANIA