Big crowds show up for Seattle meetings on youth and family issues

Layloni Hooker, sitting in the Van Asselt Elementary School cafeteria last week, was not fazed by the dozens of strangers around her. The 18-year-old South Lake High School student had a mission: to ask city officials to do something about youth violence.

"I came here to let the teens be heard on youth violence," Hooker said later, as most of the crowd shuffled out. "I have a lot of friends that's dying right now from just being a different color or dying because they're not from this side of town."

Hooker and about 200 others discussed the challenges facing Seattle youth and brainstormed possible solutions at an unusual town-hall meeting last Monday, the third such gathering for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn's Youth and Families Initiative. The next meeting is 7 p.m. Monday at Denny Middle School.

The initiative aims to engage residents, especially those rarely heard from. After six large town halls and dozens of smaller community gatherings aimed at identifying problems, representatives from the meetings will convene at a Kids and Families Congress on June 5 to hash out policy recommendations.

Those recommendations will "strongly inform" next year's city budget and the Families and Education Levy request, McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus said.

The seven-year levy, up for renewal next year, funds early-childhood education, student-health services and family programs. In 2004, the last time residents voted on it, the proposal came to nearly $117 million.

The information from the initiative will also be used to lobby Seattle Public Schools, the Legislature and the local business community, McGinn said.

"There are people that make decisions, and it's a question of what are our priorities," he said. "By soliciting that and bringing more people into the process, we hope ultimately to create the public demand to change."

Judging by the numbers, the initiative has already succeeded in engaging the community, said Ramona Hattendorf, president of the Seattle Council PTSA, which has not been directly involved in the initiative. About 650 people have attended the first three meetings.

Some of the main issues raised so far include teen violence, the achievement gap between white students and African-American and Latino students, the lack of jobs and career counseling for students and Seattle's high dropout and low graduation rates.

Those are all large societal problems that will not be easily solved, officials acknowledged. They also said they don't know exactly where the initiative is headed, or if it will make a difference.

"What will happen at the end? We don't know because it's truly being driven from a grass-roots perspective," said Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess, head of the Public Safety and Education Committee. "Whether or not it's going to solve these problems or to what degree it will solve these problems remains to be seen."

Even McGinn admitted he isn't sure the process will have an impact.

"It's a huge undertaking. We're trying to change something that's been broken for a while, and lots of smart people have tried to come up with solutions and haven't succeeded," he said. "No, I'm not at all confident it's going to make a difference."

At last Monday's meeting, attendees were less concerned with the initiative's result and more focused on simply making their voices heard.

Organizers divided the people into groups of 10 or less. Each group discussed critical issues that need to be addressed, prioritized that list then brainstormed solutions. All of the concerns and ideas were written on large pieces of white paper.

"At the end of the day, when the task is done and when things are accomplished, you must remark, 'We have done it ourselves,' " said former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, one of three initiative co-chairs, in opening the meeting.

The other co-chairs are Bob Watt, a former Seattle deputy mayor, and Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro De La Raza, a Latino civil-rights organization.

Attendee Hassan Wardere was struck by the diversity of the crowd.

"It's actually young folks and older folks," said Wardere, who teaches media production to students from Eastern Africa. "I don't see that a lot. It's usually older folks doing their thing, younger folks doing their thing."

"The city's doing something great," he said. "It's going to help us. I'm really proud."

As for Hooker, she doesn't know if the initiative will help reduce youth violence.

"It might, in a way, because maybe the teens that's causing the problems will be like, 'My community is not cooperating with that,' " Hooker said.

Then she paused.

"I hope it does."

Brian Rosenthal: 206-464-3195 or brosenthal@seattletimes.com