For Teens, Cleaner, Safer Neighborhoods are Building Blocks for Thriving Communities.  

“Children are 20 percent of our population, but 100 percent of our future,” says Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims. Brick by Brick sat down with several Dayton teens to hear their thoughts on their neighborhoods and communities. A few consistent desires were cleaner neighborhoods, better maintained parks, and more activities to help youth learn and grow.    

What Teens Want for Their Neighborhoods   

Rick Kuhbander, a 16-year-old from southeast Dayton who attends Riverscape Career Tech High School, thinks more after-school programs and better parks would help prevent kids from fighting. “Everybody working together to clean up the community, to clean up the alleys, to fund parks and have more extracurricular activities for the teens to stay out of the streets,” he says.    

15–year-old Deon Drake, who loves playing football, expressed similar sentiments, “I would like to see more activities around your neighborhood for sports and stuff to keep the people out of trouble… would like to see more people treating the neighborhood good and picking up the trash and stuff.”   

And a cared for neighborhood would be more welcoming, “If people would care more and stuff and be like, oh this is a nice neighborhood to come to and stuff,” continues Drake.  

High school sophomore, Goddess Jackson, wants to see more entertainment and less violence near her home in West Dayton. Her voice wavering a bit as she describes what she sees, “Okay, so I live in Desoto Bass, and it is just very you see drugs, drug addicts and kids my age, 16, they can range from 13 too. They selling weed and stuff like that. And of course that’s going to lead up to something. So, drive-bys. Like just yesterday someone got shot, it was like 10 cops down there and it is, but it’s like everybody’s just like a normal thing from where I’m from. They normalize it.” 

“I just want a cleaner or better environment and better people in the neighborhood,” says 15-year-old Dionte Wagner.  

Impact of Debris on Well-Being   

Chaz Amos, a 22-year-old security resource officer with Dayton public schools, understands how debris and blight can impact other areas of a neighborhood including crime and violence.  

Amos, who started the non-profit “I love West Dayton” says, “I think a lot of that it can actually become a form of trauma when you’re growing up in an impoverished area where there’s trash everywhere, which inevitably is connected to increased violence, lack of morale and pride. It does something to your mindset.”  

And when you live around it so long, it is normalized says Amos. “So when you see trash lined up along the fence line of your park or in a certain area, you don’t think anything of it, you actually add to it depending on what your mindset is, you’re like, okay, well, it doesn’t matter anyway.” 

But it does matter. According to Jessica Salem, Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity at Dayton Children’s Hospital, about 80% of a child’s health has to do with things like their housing, their neighborhoods and their homes.  Factors such as access to walking, access to a food option and a safe place to play are all health determinants.  

Salem stressed that safe can mean a lot of different things, “Do you feel connected? Do you have a neighbor that you could run to if you were afraid? Do you have a neighborhood watching out for you? And so day by day if you’re like, if my neighborhood doesn’t feel safe, that’s going to be internalized.”  

Teens may internalize other things they see walking through their neighborhood. “Kids are so interested in what people’s perception of them are, that is part of growing up. But also what does this say about me as far as where I live and how I’m valued? “ 

Giving Back to the Community   

Chaz Amos had the opportunity to meet President Obama at a west coast teen conference and said that President Obama asked him the same question that someone had asked him, “What can I take back to my respective community?”     

Amos asked himself, “What can I take back to Dayton and came up with the idea of the trash. It was something that was approachable, manageable, and I came back and I wrote down in a big notebook that I still have to this day,” recalls Amos.   

Soon after Amos started a community effort of over 200 volunteers to pick up trash in Dayton neighborhoods.  The primary target areas were parks, street ways, alleyways. Amos says that alleyways are especially problematic in neighborhoods where debris from a vacant home is often dumped, or someone has moved out and left all their things in the alleyway.  

But the main focus of the cleanup were the parks where kids play. “We’ve had people who have removed needles, different paraphernalia items, and all kinds of different things from the park where our kids play at.”  

The Dayton Department of Public Works assisted with 12 dump trucks to helped Amos and the volunteers remove over 238,000 pounds of bulk and garbage in five neighborhoods. 

“It made me feel good, for sure. It made me feel like I was getting the message out, especially once I would see more and more residents out with litter pickers, cleaning,” reflected Amos.   

Teens Want to Make Changes   

According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a national non-profit, all youth need a range of opportunities, relationships, and supports in order to be healthy and prepared for adulthood. 

And teens want to make change says Salem, “There’s a lot of research out there about what really can help kids build resiliency or protective factors…  some of the big takeaways are that they have a social connection, that they feel that they’re connected, and also that they’re able to give back to their community.”   

Chaz Amos says there are so many different things that can be done that are small and that you don’t have to go through large channels to make things happen. “You can do your own community clean up around your house or in your alleyway… maybe organizing some type of drive for resources for families or people on your block.”  

High school senior, Robin Bruce, an aspiring artist and musician sums up what many teens were saying, “A thriving community is just being able to get community members to gather around and do things for the neighborhood. And making sure everything is safe for everyone. “ 

Thank you for taking the time to read this article! We would like to hear what you think makes better neighborhoods and communities and your thoughts on what the teens shared for what they would like to see in their neighborhoods.

Emiko Moore – Multi-Media Journalist

Emiko Moore is a graduate of Ohio State University has been a freelance producer for NBC News for the last 20 years, covering stories in southwest Ohio and in the tri-state area. She also hosted The Lebanon City Show and was a print journalist for the Western Star, focusing on Warren County. Prior to moving back to her hometown of Lebanon, OH, she worked in NYC for NBC TODAY and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. As a volunteer with Building Bridges Community Conversations, Ishinomaki Playground Project, and Miller Ecological Park, she believes it takes continuous work to strengthen communities. She is excited about journalism that explores the issues while highlighting solutions to bring about positive change.