Homeless Youth Task Force

The Homeless Youth/Police Relations Task Force is a group of youth, service providers, congregational representatives and other local residents who seek to make the Lakeview community reflective of their values.  The Task Force works to make Lakeview a welcoming place to the homeless, runaway and otherwise at risk youth who come here.  The main issue that the Task Force is addressing is the consistent harassment and abuse of these youth by the police.  LAC addresses this issue in a few ways:

Youth Allies is a network of congregation, non-profits and businesses working together to address youth homelessness and mistreatment towards homeless and at risk youth.  The 20 current youth allies take action in many different ways: by supporting the work of The Night Ministry and taking part in their programming, supporting youth who have been abused by the police by court monitoring, collecting toiletries and other necessities for the youth, marching in solidarity with the youth, educating other members of their congregation about this issue, writing letters to the Police Superintendent about police accountability, and joining with other LAC members as members of the Task Force.  If you would like to find out how your congregation or organization can become a Youth Ally, please contact LAC.

The Task Force is also working for Police Accountability by supporting reforms to the Independent Police Review Authority (formerly the Office of Professional Standards), and pushing for a system of accountability that can punish officers involved in incidents and stop the culture of abuse.  We have done this by working with our local commanders, our Aldermen and high level police officials. 

The Task Force is working to train Youth Leaders to be involved in this work.

Finally, the Task Force is building relationships in the business community to ensure that Lakeview is a welcoming place for the youth that enjoy the community.