Bringing Street Safety To Young People: 2025 Dance & Street Safety Series

By: Sumera Garcia-Quadri

This June, I was lucky to offer three FUN-FILLED sessions for youth ages 13 to 19 during the 2025 PartciPACTION Community Challenge. With their generosity, and 3 host organizations, we got approximately 40 youth to turn off their cells and MOVE.

The goal of our series has always been to get more youth who live in NIAS/ those tackling high gun violence rates to move more and feel safe as they walk around their neighborhoods. Young adults should feel safe when walking to and from school, a friend’s house, and from work or when volunteering.

Here are 5 takeaways from the June series

For the first time, all of our sessions were co-ed with a high number of teen boys ages 13 to 19 participating
Youth learned how their stance, posture, and eye contact could play a BIG role in how safe they were on streets through fun games and drills
We also touched on how being alert (by putting away their cells and earphones while walking) could reduce their risks of injuries on the streets at night/during icy and rainy weather, which could in turn keep them away from playing the sports they loved
Together, boys and girls brain stormed ways to address and escape different situations like being followed home from a party to someone trying to follow them home from the mall
All host organizations were consulted in advance on how we could deliver a session for their community effectively

I would like to thank our host organizations for collaborating with me for a 6th year, Jessica and Tanya at AlbionBGC, Cori at RCHC, and Alyssa at McGregor Park CC and Eileen at Malvern CC.

Please keep an eye out for our 2nd kid’s Halloween Dance & Safety series coming in October.

Sumera