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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Psycho, Youth Advocate from Youth Represent
6:45:46
ยท
119 sec
Psycho, a youth advocate from Youth Represent, emphasizes the importance of community-based programs in reducing crime and supporting youth development. He argues for continued investment in these programs despite budget cuts, contrasting them with increased police budgets.
- Highlights the effectiveness of community efforts, including know-your-rights trainings and crime prevention programs with credible messengers
- Criticizes the underfunding and cutting of youth programs while police budgets continue to increase
- Calls for investment in social, economic, and developmental programs to help young people reach their potential and avoid over-criminalization
Psycho
6:45:46
Peace everybody.
6:45:47
My name is Psycho from Youth Represent.
6:45:49
It's an acronym in the essence of time.
6:45:51
I'm not going to get into too much of what that means.
6:45:54
I'm from Brownsville, Brooklyn.
6:45:55
I'm currently 30 years old and from what I understand crime is going down.
6:46:02
I feel like one thing that's not or I guess it literally has been said here by the providers that it is going down because of all the efforts in the community.
6:46:12
Right?
6:46:13
Kids are starting to step up and come out to places like hearings.
6:46:17
They're starting to go to things like know your rights trainings and they're starting to organize know your rights trainings.
6:46:22
Programs, crime prevention programs are starting to enter the communities with credible messengers that are actually like us doing that are actually not only deterring crime, but also helping meet the needs of community.
6:46:41
Yet also at the same time, we're seeing these programs being inexplicably underfunded, we're seeing them being cut, and we're seeing other budgets, namely the police budgets get raised over and over and over again.
6:46:54
If New York City is committed to keeping people safe, if it's committed to the development of the youth, if it's committed to a holistic approach to bringing the city to being one of the greatest cities in the country, then we need to continuously invest in these program, in these social economic and developmental program, social and emotional developmental programs that help young adults and youth be the people who they want to be in life.
6:47:20
We need to stop wasting our time, we need to stop over criminalizing them and we need to stop cutting the services in the places where they're at.
6:47:27
Schools, community services, mental health programs, literally all spaces where youths are at need to be funded and instead they're being cut.
6:47:38
We need to not only ask why but really just cut it out and that's all I gotta say on that.
6:47:44
Thanks for hearing me out.