A community “Chat and Chew” is scheduled for Saturday, September 24 at St. Paul AME church located on 15-21 Sanford Street, East Orange from 3-5:30 p.m. This meet and greet event is geared to teens and their families and will be an open dialogue forum where individuals can express their concerns.
Former Police Officer Carolyn Alford is the event organizer. She has dedicated her life to helping young people as a teacher, advocate and volunteer. She hopes this seminar will be a start in building relationships within the community.
“Primarily the purpose of this event is to develop or improve relationships between teens/young adults and the East Orange community in the effort to ensure that these young people have the opportunity to become community stake holders,” Alford said. “One of the goals of this program is to help reduce juvenile delinquency as well as to reduce the probability of negative interaction with the criminal justice system.”
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A segment of this event will be devoted to addressing quality of life concerns of community youth (i.e. education, employment and interaction with police officers). Ms. Alford, Rev/Dr. Leonard Santucci of the E. Orange St. Paul AME Church and current E. Orange Police Officers will be on hand to give insight on positive interactions in the community.
This community event is free and open to the general public; more specifically young adults, teenagers and adults who have quality of life concerns. For more information about this event please contact the church at 973-677-1797or email writin4d@gmail.com
