Members of the Avondale youth council are working hard to make their neighborhood a better place to live.  

As part of an Anti-Litter and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) grant funded by the Uptown Consortium, Avondale’s youth are helping make its streets both safer and cleaner for its residents.

Better yet, the young people are learning valuable skills that will last a lifetime.

Local Initiatives Support Cooperation (LISC) is in charge of overseeing the grant money given to the Avondale Community Council. “We’re using the grant money to get Avondale’s young people involved in their community,” said LISC program officer, Ozie Davis. “The result has been several highly-successful, ongoing youth initiatives.”

To date, the Community Police Partnering Center has trained 15 young people to evaluate homes for CPTED.  After evaluating a home, the kids and experts work together to make the appropriate recommendations to homeowners on how to make their property safer.

Each homeowner who takes part in the program receives $500 to make the necessary improvements and Youth Council members can earn money by assisting with installation.  

Another initiative of the Avondale Youth Council is an anti-littering campaign called “Trash Cans Poppin’, Litterin Stoppin’,” which focuses on cleaning up central Avondale. As part of the program, the kids made two field trips, one to the city dump and one to the city recycling center to learn the importance of proper waste disposal and recycling.  Since then, the Youth Council has held three separate clean-up events, which won them the “Large Project Award” from Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.

Youth Council members are also participating in CeaseFire Cincinnati.  CeaseFire is a neighborhood-based program where citizens, police and supporting agencies work together to create a safer community.  Youth Council members participate by canvassing streets with CeaseFire staff, handing out literature about stopping gun violence.   The council also participated in “National Night Out,” a community relations program with the Cincinnati Police, which earned them another award from the police partnering center.

 “These programs provide an avenue to keep them off the street,” said Davis.  “The kids are learning important life skills like how to be organized, how to complete tasks and how to be leaders.”

Johnay Brazzle, president of the Avondale Youth Council, agrees. “These programs have been a positive learning experience.”