As a good example of how youths in the community are working to improve their neighborhoods, youths of the Santa Barbara Arts Alliance have adopted the Milpas Street corridor from Canon Perdido to Cabrillo Boulevard.
The youths are primarily conducting graffiti abatement along Milpas Street. City Parks & Recreation Department staff, a member of the Franklin Advisory Committee and the Arts Alliance youth participants had their first walk-through on Nov. 17 with two more scheduled for Dec. 7 and Dec. 14.
Beginning in January, youths will be doing a weekly walk through from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday to remove graffiti, pick up trash, scrub/wash trash cans and wipe down news stands.
The Santa Barbara Arts Alliance is a special program that supports positive youth development through the arts and is managed through the Neighborhood & Outreach Services section of the city’s Parks & Recreation Department. The program encourages youths to participate in organized art projects that provide a community service element as an alternative to youth violence and/or expensive graffiti vandalism.
City staff and volunteer mentors provide youths with ongoing adult mentorship and year-round skill-building activities centered on the creative arts, including mural creation, digital graphics, silk-screening and photography.
The Santa Barbara Arts Alliance helps reduce and minimize all forms of vandalism, violence and youth delinquency. It helps local youths reintegrate into the community. The program is housed at the Franklin Neighborhood Center and coordinated by Ricardo Venegas, NOS Coordinator II.
Call 805.963.7605 for more information.
— Kathleen Sullivan is a marketing coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department.