Teen Center Among Ideas Presented at University City Youth Forum

About a dozen people gathered at the  Thursday evening for a

Alice Floros, a student at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, organized the gathering and served as the mediator.

"I thought it went pretty well," Floros said after the meeting. "I was glad to see a strong turnout from the U City Youth Society."

Several members of the University City Youth Society were in attendance, including Jami Cox, the group's president.

"We wanted to come to let people know about our group and have people hear teen voices," Cox said.

During the course of the two-hour meeting several topics came up, mainly revolving around the accessibility to public spaces for University City teens. A lot questions focused on the policies of the city and the school board, including access to buildings and parks for events.

"It's a public park, why can't you just play?" said Jim Bashkin, a professor at UMSL and father of two. "The facilities belong to the people who live here."

"I feel there's no real place for teens to go and have fun," said Lynden Peoples, who is part of the peace committee at U City High School.

Many of the teens in attendance expressed frustration that some of the adults they've had to work with have been unwilling to take a chance on any teenagers, making the ones who are doing good things feel like they're being punished for other teenagers' mistakes.

"People don't want to be liable if something bad happens," said Monet Grant. "They may be preventing those things from happening, but they're also risking good things happening."

Among the ideas presented at the meeting; the creation of a teen center in the city and more fun events, like concerts, dances, lock-ins and sporting events.

Attendees left satisfied that their combined efforts will help to bring some positive changes to the community by teens and for teens.

"We have some really enthusiastic young people," said Jonathan McFarland, who helped organize the forum. "I can only see this continue to grow."

In the next couple of weeks, the group is hoping to host a workshop for teens with a member of the American Civil Liberties Union in how to properly handle potentially hostile situations with police officers. After that, the group is looking forward to the "Regional Initiative on Youth" on July 12 at 6 p.m. at the , which University City Mayor Shelley Welsch is with other leaders from the St. Louis area.