MOUNT PROSPECT'S POSITIVE RESPONSE
TO YOUTH ISSUES
By GEORGE A. CLOWES
Do residents in your community view young people negatively or positively? When youth issues arise,
are they seen as problems, or as opportunities?
Over the past seven years. Mount Prospect has
made a concerted effort not only to respond to youth
issues, but to respond to them in a positive manner. By
viewing youth as responsible citizens rather than juvenile delinquents, the Village has developed a wide variety of programs to target specific areas where youth
needs or problems have been identified. Here are
some of the successful programs that Mount Prospect
has initiated since 1990.
Pre-Prom Crash Simulation
Prom Night is a proud night for parents, but it's
one fraught with worry about their son or daughter
getting home safely. You can warn young people about
the dangers of drinking and driving, but you can only
hope and pray that they heed the warning. In the
spring of 1990, Dale Steward of the Mount Prospect
Fire Department came up with a better way of conveying that warning. Working with staff from High School
District 214, and following the example of other communities, he organized a pre-prom event for juniors
and seniors at Prospect High School to simulate a
prom night drunken-driving accident. The "crash" involves a real car that is cut apart by firemen to extricate victims from the vehicle. A police officer conducts a sobriety test on the driver, who is later led away
in handcuffs. The crash victim is taken away in a body
bag. Last year, the simulation was made even more
chilling by showing the reaction of parents when a local minister and a police officer inform them that
their child has been killed. Surveys indicate that the
simulation is very effective in getting through to students.
Regional Action Planning Project
During the late 1980s, many community leaders in
northwest Cook County became increasingly concerned about the growing presence of gangs in the
suburbs. Gang activity was affecting schools, park districts, and social service agencies, spilling across municipal boundaries and frustrating the efforts of local
law enforcement officials. In June 1990, a group of
school superintendents, police chiefs, park district directors and social service agency heads met to address
the problem. As a result of that meeting, the
Northwest Suburban Regional Action Planning
Project (R.A.P.P.) was formed.
R.A.P.P. now has more than 30 member organizations in 13 communities, working together to eliminate the conditions that foster gang development.
Taking a regional approach to the problem of gangs,
members share information and work collaboratively
on program planning and implementation. RA.P.P.'s
strategy for reducing gang influence is to focus on
three key areas: education and training for community members and professionals, alternative activities for
youth and diversion programs for young offenders.
R.A.P.P.'s efforts were honored with first place in the
Governor's Hometown Awards program in 1994 and
1995.
TAP Mount Prospect
Whereas R.A.P.P. is a cooperative effort across
communities, TAP Mount Prospect (Teens and
Parents for a Better Mount Prospect) is a cooperative
effort within the community, involving youth, parents,
concerned citizens and representatives of schools,
churches and local government organizations. TAP'S
purpose is to promote youth as responsible citizens in
Mount Prospect. Mayor Gerald L. Parley formed the
group in 1992 when citizens asked him to initiate a
community response to the problem of underage
drinking and driving. TAP'S efforts were honored in
1995 with first place in the Governor's Hometown
Awards program.
Underage Drinking Ordinance
One of TAP Mount Prospect's unique contributions has been in the law enforcement area. In 1993,
the group developed a parental responsibility ordinance that held both parents and teens accountable
for underage drinking. The ordinance established
mandatory fines, but it also required that adults take
George Clowes is a Village Trustee in Mount Prospect and
Chairman of Teens and Parents for a Better Mount Prospect. He
produces a monthly cable TV program for TAP Mount Prospect featuring youth panelists commenting on issues that affect them.
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June 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 11
responsibility if they negligently allow underage drinking in their houses or businesses. In addition, it provided police officers with the authority to protect public safety by impounding any vehicle driven by an underage person impaired by alcohol. The legislation
subsequently was adopted by many surrounding communities and it became the catalyst for statewide "Zero
Tolerance" legislation approved a year later. Over
3,000 teens had their driving licenses suspended in the
first year after the state's Zero Tolerance law went into
effect.
Although the ordinance establishes a mandatory
fine for underage drinking, the judge has the option
of imposing either the fine, counseling (up to the cost
of the fine) or community service work. During the
past year, questions were raised about whether paying
a stiff fine reduced recidivism as much as doing 25-50
hours of community service work coupled with drug
and alcohol counseling. Following discussion of these
concerns with Third District Court Judge Earl
Hoffenberg, TAP Mount Prospect is developing a
menu of options for community service/drug and alcohol counseling that the Village Prosecutor could recommend as alternatives to fines.
Bimonthly "YO Mount Prospect Activities" Calendar
Since May 1993, TAP has produced a bimonthly
youth activities calendar called "YO Mount Prospect!"
(Youth Organization of Mount Prospect). The calendar
is necessary because of the extreme fragmentation of
local government in Illinois, where municipal boundaries rarely are contiguous with those of schools and
park districts. Mount Prospect stretches across two
townships, and has five park districts and seven school
districts within its boundaries. As a result, many young
people are not aware of activities available to them
through the library, park districts, local schools and
churches. The "YO Mount Prospect!" activities calendar
addresses this problem.
Weekly Club RecPlex Teen Nights
In addition to publicizing existing activities, TAP
also set up new, low-cost Friday evening activities,
called "Club RecPlex" for junior high age students at
the Park District's Rec Center. Parent volunteers and
high school student volunteers act as chaperones and
role models at Club RecPlex. In its three years of existence, Club RecPlex has become an ongoing activity
night for more than 160 youngsters.
First Annual Town Meeting on Youth and Family Issues
In July 1993, the Positive Youth Development
Division of the Illinois Department of Children and
Family Services awarded a grant to TAP Mount
Prospect. One of the grant requirements was to hold a
town meeting to address problems of youth and families in the community. This has been done for each of
the past three years, with young people becoming
more and more involved in running the meeting.
The Town Meetings are televised live on the
Village's cable channel and are attended by youth, parents, concerned citizens, state and local elected officials, and representatives from schools, churches, park
districts and youth groups. The first meeting identified two critical unmet needs: letting parents know
what activities were available for their children, and establishing a forum where young people could express
their opinions. Subsequent meetings have become a
rich source of ideas for new initiatives in the Village,
such as Youth in Government Day, peer jury and a
youth cable TV show.
Annual Youth Sports and More! Festival
In response to needs expressed at the 1993 Town
Meeting, TAP worked with the Mount Prospect Park
District to organize a Youth Sports and More! Festival in
May 1994. The Festival was a cooperative effort among
youth and family-oriented organizations in the Village
to inform residents about the variety of community resources available to youth, including sports, hobbies,
youth groups, scouts, Y-Indian programs, parent-child
programs, volunteer work, trips and camps. Local
sports personalities and the Jesse White Tumblers
drew young people to the Festival. The Village's cable
TV unit covered the event. The Festival has developed
into a successful annual event that puts young people
in touch with a wide range of recreational and developmental activities. The Mount Prospect Lions Club
and local businesses sponsor the event and raffle proceeds support a Youth Sports Scholarship Fund.
Youth Resource Catalog (updated annually)
As a spin-off from the Youth Sports and More!
Festival, a pocket-sized Youth Resource Catalog was developed, listing names, phone numbers, and contacts
for most of the youth organizations in and around
Mount Prospect. The Catalog, which features the
names of Festival sponsors on the front cover, is also
printed in Spanish. The Chamber of Commerce now
includes this Catalog in its Welcome Package for new
residents.
Rising Star Awards
Following the success of the Village's 75th
Anniversary Celebration in 1992, the Mount Prospect
Special Events Commission organized an annual winter awards banquet called the Celestial Celebration.
The awards recognize local residents - "our own
Shining Stars" - for their contributions to the life of
the Village. In 1994, the Special Events Commission
enhanced the constellation of Shining Stars with a series of Rising Star awards to recognize outstanding
contributions by young people.
Page 12 / Illinois Municipal Review / June 1996
Gang Suppression Ordinance
In 1995, the Village adopted a comprehensive ordinance addressing gangs and age-related offenses. It
provides a strong pro-active response to incipient gang
issues in the community. Before the ordinance was
brought to the Village Board, input on its proposals
was solicited from students at Prospect High School.
To facilitate their understanding of the proposals, the
legalese of the ordinance was summarized into the accompanying chart, called ""Coming of Age in Mount
Prospect." The chart has proven to be a convenient
means of summarizing a variety of laws that apply to
young people at different ages, laws ranging from truancy to shooting a gun.
Student Resource Officer in Junior High School
In 1995, the Village and a local school district cooperated to provide a police office in one of the
Village's junior high schools. This Student Resource
Officer (SRO) is a sworn police officer with special
training to handle youth problems. The SRO works directly in the school, providing counseling, crime prevention and crime awareness programs to the students
and staff. The officer brings a positive role model into
the junior high environment and the officer's presence serves as a deterrent to potential gang activity.
Monthly Teen Night ("Your Night")
This is an alternate activity program for junior
high youth, organized in 1995 as a joint effort of community volunteers, the River Trails School District, the
River Trails Park District and the Village's Police and
Human Service Departments. The event is held each
month on a Saturday evening at the Weiss Community
Center and it offers a wide variety of supervised activities such as open gym, basketball, movies, dancing
and videogames. Parents are required to drop off their
children and to pick them up at the end of the
evening. The idea of the program is that this is "Your
Night" for young people, a time to get together with
friends and play games, watch movies or dance. It's a
formula that seems to work - the program already attracts more than 60 teens.
Monthly Cable TV Show
("YouthView from Mount Prospect")
At the town meetings, young people said they
wanted a forum in which they could express their ideas
and have them taken seriously. As a result, young people now have their own local cable TV show. Several
members of TAP Mount Prospect volunteered for
training to become qualified community access producers. In December, 1995, a monthly youth panel discussion show, "YouthView from Mount Prospect,"
made its debut on TCI's local community access channel, airing twice a week each month.
The half-hour program consists of four teens from
local schools plus a moderator. The teen panel varies
from month to month, depending upon the topic discussed. Topics discussed so far are parental responsi-
COMING OF AGE IN MOUNT PROSPECT
(big image 4.60 M)
June 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13
bility laws, curfews, teen smoking, peer juries and
graduated driver's licenses.
Annual Youth Leadership Luncheon
Although the annual Celestial Celebration
Banquet honors young "Rising Stars" in Mount
Prospect, TAP felt that there should be some way of
recognizing more young leaders in the community.
This year, 60 young people from six junior high and
parochial schools in Mount Prospect were honored at
a Youth Leadership Luncheon. Each school nominates
the honorees.
Youth in Government Day
With help from neighboring Arlington Heights,
Mount Prospect this year participated in a Youth in
Government Day. High school students spent a day
"shadowing" Village department heads to learn more
about their jobs. Later in the day, the students toured
Village facilities and met with all department heads for
a round-table of comments and questions. In 1997, the
program will be expanded to include junior high students.
Peer Jury
Mount Prospect is establishing a peer jury program, scheduled to begin in the Fall. The program,
run by the local police department and coordinated
through the office of the Cook County Circuit Clerk,
Aurelia Pucinski, allows youthful offenders to come
before a jury of their peers who then impose an appropriate sentence of community service work.
The idea of a peer jury was first raised at last
year's Town Meeting. Members of TAP then attended
Peer Jury sessions in Hoffman Estates and Rolling
Meadows to witness the programs in action. As a result, TAP recommended a peer jury program for
Mount Prospect as an effective means of involving
young people in the life of the community and helping
young offenders get on the right track.
All-Youth Youth Commission (recommended)
One way to give youth a voice in the community is
through a Youth Commission. However, many Youth
Commissions have more adults than youths and youth
members often defer to adult experience. The Mount
Prospect Public Library developed a recommendation
that Mount Prospect's Youth Commission be composed entirely of youth, with young people as the only
voting members. Adult commission members would
provide staff support but have no voting powers.
Another unique aspect of TAP'S recommendation is
the inclusion of junior high as well as high school
youth on the commission.
Recognizing that this novel Youth Commission
structure will not work without the full support of
youth in the community, Mayor Farley plans to take
the proposal directly to local schools and seek student
input and support before taking a final recommendation to the Village Board.
Citizens have a lot of valid concerns about youth
crime, but we shouldn't allow the anti-social behavior
of a small number of juvenile delinquents to poison
our attitudes towards young people in general. We
must continue to respond positively to youth issues
and to treat youth as responsible citizens in the community. •
This article is based on presentations by the author and by Mount
Prospect Village Trustee Irvana Wilks at a recent Regional Prevention
Group Special Event on "Communities in Action: Responding to Alcohol,
Drugs, and Gangs."
The ILLINOIS MUNICIPAL REVIEW continues to be an open forum of expression for
municipalities. Articles appearing in the Review
do not necessarily express the views of the League
or its staff but those of the various authors.
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