Teens Study Neighborhood Conditions In City

August 12, 2005
By ASHLEY L. BATTLE, Courant Staff Writer

For the past six weeks, 35 teens working at the Institute for Community Research's Summer Youth Research Institute have been busy studying the neighborhood conditions of the city.

By working in focus groups, the teens decided that three major factors affect neighborhood conditions: community norms, role models and financial situations.

The teens, ages 14 to 17, studied neighborhood conditions such as fighting, unsafe parks, litter, deaths and abandoned buildings. They worked in one of three groups: interviewing, surveying and visual/mapping.

Chiedza Rodriguez, the program's coordinator and prevention research educator, said that one of the program's goals was to give today's teens a voice.

"We want the youth to know that what they know is knowledge and that they can create change," Rodriguez said. Rodriguez, who also served as the supervisor of the interview group, said the teens came up with the idea to study neighborhood conditions because they are affected directly by them.

Jennifer Jones, 16, of the interview group, . said she was especially surprised that many people liked the area where they lived, although the depiction of Hartford's neighborhoods tends to be negative.

Maricely Ponton, 16, and Kayla Waters, 17, both of Hartford, worked in the survey group and found one statistic from the survey troubling: 63 percent of the youths surveyed said they did not have a role model.

"That surprised me the most," Waters said.

Damion Sincere Morgan, prevention research educator at the institute and supervisor of the survey group, said another troubling statistic was that males were less likely to say that teachers were their role models.

Students Montreal Cade, 17, and Pedro Rivera, 16, both of Hartford, participated in the visual/mapping section of the program, in which they took photographs and drew maps to depict where problems such as fighting, unsafe parks, litter and deaths have occurred. They saidthey never thought of photography as a means of research until they started the program six weeks ago.

When asked what effect he hoped the program had on the public, Rivera said, "We're trying to make the community aware."

At 1 p.m. today, the teens will report the results of their studies at The Institute for Community Research, located at 2 Hartford Square, Suite 100. The event is open to the public.