93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
The executive director of Columbia’s Destiny of H.O.P.E. says the aim of the new youth center on South Providence is to be the safe place that our youth need. Lonnie Lockhart Bey tells 939 the Eagle that the location at South Providence and Ash is the first step.
“We believe that this will be the safe place but we also believe that this is needed in more than one place in Columbia. It’s nothing out north, it’s nothing out east. And just because we are here, this is ground zero this is where we started this build. But we have to spread out and we have to do more,” Lockhart Bey says.
The new P.E.A.C.E. and H.O.P.E. center for youth opened last week. It aims to teach life skills and will also teach the children how to cook healthy meals. Mr. Lockhart Bey tells 939 the Eagle that it’s designed to be a safe place where the youth can learn, do their schoolwork and have fun. The facility includes a video game room and ping pong, that the children can use when they’re done with schoolwork.
The facility will be a safe space, with zero tolerance for bullying, threats or violence. Mr. Lockhart Bay tells 939 the Eagle that some of Columbia’s youth don’t know what safety is.
“And so we’ve come to a place in our lives where we normalize chaos, right. And we look at things from a certain perspective to the point where now we don’t know that certain behaviors are ill-advised and shouldn’t be done. Because children mimic what they see,” he says.
Lockhart Bey says the youth center is committed to working with the parents as well.
“Nobody living in poverty, a majority of them do not want crime. Do not want to be living in fear. They just happen to live in poverty. Some choices, most choices, are theirs. However that don’t mean that they chose to be living like that”
Columbia’s city council has approved using $320,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for the project.
