SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento City Council members voted at their Tuesday meeting to continue funding weekly youth pop-up events through the end of the year.
The pop-ups launched as a pilot program in February, to keep kids in historically under-served, low-income neighborhoods safe, engaged and out of trouble on Friday or Saturday nights.
The pop-ups, which took place at approximately a dozen locations every weekend, attracted more than 3,600 teens during a two-month trial in February and March, according to city council documents. At the time, city council members set aside funding to run the pop-ups through June. At Tuesday’s meeting, the city council voted to keep funding the program through 2019.
The program will receive an additional $1.2 million to continue operating through Jan. 31, 2020. Per the grant agreement, the program must include "an economic mobility program" for young people ages 16-24. Basically, that allows program leaders to identify young people with leadership potential and then offer those youth job training and some income as they help organize the pop-ups for their peers.
The program began, in part, as a reaction to several public brawls between teens at the Arden Fair Mall in late 2018. Community leaders argued the kids are good – they just need a structured, safe and free environment where they can spend their Fridays &/or Saturday evenings.
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