On June 29, 2023, a press conference was held at Kennedy Park in Fall River, Massachusetts, to kick off the Fall River Sports Network basketball league, which is part of the broader "For Youth Initiative." The initiative, funded through a program initiated by the Fall River City Council, aims to engage youth aged 6 to 20 in positive activities such as boxing, dance, and various sports throughout the summer months. Mayor Coogan expressed full support for the program, acknowledging the City Council's role in designating funds for youth programs. City Councilors Laura Washington, Linda Pereira, and Andrew Rapoza spoke about the initiative's importance, particularly in addressing the detrimental impact of COVID-19 on youth mental health, substance abuse, and gang violence. Councilor Washington, a psychotherapist, highlighted the role of community connectiveness as a first line of defense. Councilor Pereira emphasized that the program is for every youth in Fall River, with the city using ARPA dollars to cover costs for families. Councilor Rapoza reiterated the importance of getting kids involved in the community now that school is out. The initiative supports various local organizations and vendors, including Regiment Training, Loves Boxing, Bernardo's Boxing, Artistic Dance Studio, and Mike's Infinite Fitness, who have continued working with youth throughout the pandemic. Bill Kiley, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club, expressed honor in partnering with the city. The "For Youth Initiative" was approved by a unanimous vote of the Fall River City Council, demonstrating broad support for keeping youth active and engaged.
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Council
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all right so we're here today um we're kicking off the first day of the well second day of the former Sports Network basketball league uh but behind me we got a ton of great organizations uh that are instrumental to some of the work that goes on and when it comes to the youth in the city um I want to start off by thanking mayor Coogan who's coming up next uh to kind
0:21of discuss a little bit uh of the some of the initiatives that are going on also want to thank the city council uh we have a few members in the city council behind us I also want to thank um and also give kudos to all of the organizations that are here and that are doing great work throughout the city um you know throughout the summer months especially our kids are always looking
0:43for something to do a lot of people donate their time they work overtime they work countless hours to make sure that our kids have something to do we give them crafts we give them skills whether it's sports or any other other you know things that keep the kids busy so without further Ado I just want to introduce mayor Coogan um what's going on this year in Fall River that's different is this
1:09basketball league which has about 200 plus students from elementary to High School playing uh right here at Kennedy Park a few nights of every single week is it's being funded through a program that was initiated from the Fall River City Council called the four youth initiative this program funds programs that are related to boxing dance Sports anything we can do to get kids engaged
1:35in positive activities throughout the summer in the city and you can see from the kids behind me they come from ages six to ages 18 20. we want them we want them engaged and active throughout the summer we obviously support this program a hundred percent and I came out here today because I am coming in support of the Fall River City Council it was the councilors that stood up and said we
1:58want to make sure we designate a set amount of money to fund programs for the kids that go on throughout the summer and it's a great thing it's a godsend with that in mind I want to thank the city council individually for this they did a great thing here the person that initially came forward in partnership with the rest of the councils was a friend of mine Laura Washington she's
2:20going to talk next but she's joined by two of her other City councilors who both supported this um program right from the get-go they were all on boy they were all in the office kicking around ideas to make it work as to the best of our ability uh City Council of Linda Pereira and City councilor Andrew aposa without all these cogs in the wheel this program would not have gone
2:41on and we're going to look for programs that we can fund that help you throughout the summer for now I'm going to turn it over to uh City councilor Laura Washington to bring up our other colleagues to say a few words this is a Monumental day for the city of Fall River and the foundation that we're creating for our youth covid-19 had a huge detrimental impact on the youth Nationwide internationally and my
3:11colleagues decided that we needed to do something and the colleagues that are here today councilor Pereira has worked with disadvantaged young people for many many years councilor Andrew rapoza is a principal of schools I'm a psychotherapist who runs psychiatric organizations and we know firsthand the damage that covid did to the young people in our community so we wanted to take a stance and get out to the vendors
3:36who are already serving the vendors that you see behind us have been working with young people throughout the pandemic they have not stopped and we wanted to get together as a team and do something and put something in place for the Youth of our city but all of the youth in our city that are in need this is for low-income families middle income class families because we know the pandemic
3:57hit ever every single person and what we know is this that Community connectiveness for young people is the first line of defense in stopping mental health issues and stopping substance abuse issues and stopping gang violence and here we are today as a community together saying that we are going to take a stance against this and come together as an organization to build a foundation for our young people and we
4:25couldn't do without our vendors and I'm happy to bring a bill from the boys club who is going to be kicking this off and I want to say we got a lot of lot and they are all here a lot of vendors we have regiment training we have loves boxing we have bernardo's boxing artistic dance studio we have Mike's infinite uh Fitness these are people who have been working with our youth and now
4:48we are coming behind them to support them in the work that they do for our use I will stop talking and uh councilor Pereira has been an astronomical Andrew rapoza our entire Council this was a unanimous vote of approval to get this pass and we couldn't have done it without our mayor but um would you like to say a couple of words I would love you to say a couple our Council vice president Linda Pereira I
5:10think the only thing that I'd like to add to this I think Laura did a great job explaining it but I think it's important that this program is for every single youth in Fall River everybody is eligible so any vendors that you see you want to get your child involved with any of these programs go in meet with them and the city is paying for it with Opera dollars to help families we know that
5:34families are struggling but this is more about helping the youth keeping youth active keeping youth alive that's what we want to do so Fall River is 100 behind the youth keep them out of trouble keep them engaged in positive things and this is what we're doing so thank you Andrew just just want to share it kudos to council Washington for her hard work with this again a wonderful Council
5:58support and unanimously to help this project along again the summer is out school is out for the summer it's a great opportunity for kids to get out and get involved in the community so this this program and the support with everyone you see behind us is going to be wonderful for the Youth of our city to keep moving things forward so kudos to all of you congratulations and we look forward to a very successful
6:17program this summer thank you nope hey hi I'm Bill Kiley the executive director of the boys and girls club and we're honored to be partnering with the city and vendors throughout the city in the four youth initiative it's truly a win-win for everyone in the community the families and kids to reconnect them with small business who you know suffered during covid and we're really excited about it so thank you
6:49all right so we do want to thank all of our vendors all of our Community Partners and our other kids for coming out today basketball sign up is going on right now tonight at um Kennedy Park right here and we hope that people get out and enjoy some of this great weather and thanks everybody for coming out we really really appreciate it anybody have any questions okay guys thank you