YMCA and Office of Violence Prevention bring Mobile Y to the City of St. Louis
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The YMCA and the Office of Violence Prevention are teaming up to bring a safe space to St. Louis.
Paul Treece tells First Alert 4, “Being able to have it’ll go everywhere over the city, gives everybody a chance to have access to it, and that’s a big deal.”
Wednesday, Paul Treece and his two sons were among the first people to access Gateway Region YMCA’s Mobile Y Unit.
The unit made the stop in Lafayette Square.
Brett Delaria is the Office of Violence Prevention’s Public Information Officer.
He says, “We know kids who are in areas affected by violence, they don’t always get the opportunity just to be themselves and to relax and to feel safe. So this is really an opportunity to create safe spaces for youth throughout the city of St Louis.”
The Mobile Y was funded through $235,111.00 in ARPA Funding.
If you step inside of the YMCA on wheels, at first glance it looks like a gamer’s heaven. If you look a little deeper -- you’ll see it’s providing the youth of St. Louis with much more, including STEAM technology.
Treece believes that a good thing, saying, “Any chance we get to do things that are kind of fun and make science and math and all that stuff fun, then feel like they get more into it.”
The unit can also serve as a place to help parents.
Delaria says, “It allows us to connect families to resources that they might utilize and need as well through the YMCA.”
“We’re focused on city branches and city locations to take our Mobile Y, so anything in North City, South City, Central, anything like that. Anybody who would like to have us come to a school and hang out with the kids? We’d love to do it,” says Courtney Bran with YMCA.
Copyright 2024 KMOV. All rights reserved.
