Summer is just around the corner, and with the end of the school year comes a big question: How are kids in Indianapolis going to stay busy?
For some, the answer is summer camp, for others it’s time with family, and for some, the answer is complicated. On Indy’s east side for example, the closure of the Ransburg YMCA left a gap in services available to families and students — not just during the summer, but year round.
VOICES Corp. aims to fill some of those gaps. The non-profit hosted a job fair this week to hire for positions such as mentors, case managers and youth engagement specialists.
Founding Director of VOICES Kia Wright says VOICES plans to expand services into evenings and weekends in the near future.
"Our goal is to have a full Monday through Saturday menu of things that youth and families can sign up for and be able to participate from,” Wright said.
This is also part of a plan in collaboration with the city of Indianapolis. VOICES is one of the partners in Mayor Joe Hogsett’s latest Youth Violence Reduction Initiative.
"We’re really heavy into trying to figure out mentoring spaces through our partners, to be able to have those safe spaces — open gyms, community literacy circles, and things like that help fill in that gap, so they’re not out doing stuff on the streets, ” Wright said.
She says people interested in helping can volunteer.
More information is available at voicescorp.org.
Contact WFYI Morning Edition newscaster and reporter Barbara Anguiano at banguiano@wfyi.org
