A summit aimed at bringing together agencies and nonprofits that help troubled young people in the District is in the works as part of new Mayor Adrian Fenty’s first 100 days plan.
The summit will be a part of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services’ Reconnecting Disconnected Youth program, which aims to help young people in D.C. who have fallen through the cracks.
Specifically, the agency works with nonprofits to rehabilitate juvenile offenders, as well as other youngsters under the custody of the city government, by helping them re-enter school or the workforce.
“Basically, the idea of the summit is to bring together nonprofits, agencies, private organizations and actual youth to [discuss how to] best help reconnect the youth,” said Dena Iverson, a spokeswoman in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office.
The mayor’s office is currently collecting data on the city’s disconnected youth, said Iverson, and once that’s completed will decide what participants they want to include in the summit.
No nonprofits have been tapped yet to assist in the planning, but Fenty’s office did include several representatives from the nonprofit community on his transition team, including Maria Gomez from Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, Peter Edelman from Georgetown University Law School and Stacey Stewart from the Fannie Mae Foundation.
Plans for the summit should be finalized within the first 90 days of Fenty’s administration, according to his 100 days plan, but no date has been set.
