The mission of the Berkeley Boosters PAL is to unite the Berkeley Police, businesses, and interested citizens in delivering innovative programs that educate and prepare young people to become productive members of our multi-ethnic society. We accomplish this by bringing law enforcement officers, safety personnel and youth together through quality activities designed to develop discipline, self-esteem, interpersonal skills, positive citizenship and community pride.

Description:
Berkeley Boosters / Police Activities League

QUICK FACTS

The Berkeley Boosters / Police Activities League was founded in 1983, in response to the Chief of Police's appeal for help in dealing with the problems that existed at that time between the Police Department and our youth.

Since 1983, we have worked with over 10,000 low-income, at-risk young people, helping them discover their own unique gifts and talents and directing them in applying those skills towards making positive contributions to our community. We received three Governor's Awards for Leadership and Outstanding Contributions in Crime Prevention before that award was discontinued.

The Berkeley Boosters / Police Activities League builds bridges of trust and understanding between disparate groups; bringing together youth and police, different ethnic groups, bridging inter-generational gaps, etc. Our goal is to stress the commonalities of the human condition and the need to work well with all peoples in order for a team, a project, or a society to succeed.

We offer several different programs for all school aged children in the City of Berkeley:

o After School Programs
o Outdoor Education (Rock Climbing, Kayaking, Sailing, Hiking, etc)
o Youth Employment
o Girl's and Boy's groups
o Police Activities League Sports (Baseball, Basketball, Golf, etc.)
o Teen Leadership Training
o Youth Court
o Special Events and Activities ("Pedal for Peace", "Sacramento Experience", etc.)

We also provide important public safety / ambassadorial services to the city through our three R.E.S.P.E.C.T.-based programs: Downtown Berkeley Guides, BART Escorts, and R.E.S.P.E.C.T. After School Safety Monitors at the three Berkeley Middle Schools.

We take a leadership role in several key community service activities in the city of Berkeley:
o Thanksgiving Turkey Basket Distribution to 250 needy families
o Christmas Turkey Basket Distribution to 250 needy families.
o Christmas party and presents for 400 Berkeley Head Start children.
o Parks / Waterfront Cleanup

We are a 501(C)(3) non-profit agency, fully dependent upon the contributions of individuals, businesses, corporations and foundations for funding for the services we provide.

Contact Information:
Berkeley Boosters / Police Activities League
P.O. Box 17
Berkeley, CA 94710
www.berkeleyboosters.org
(510) 704-0467 - David W. Manson, Jr. - Executive Director (dmanson@berkeleyboosters.org)

History:
Organizational History and Mission Statement


In 1983, the Berkeley Boosters were just an idea in the head of former Chief of Police Ronald D. Nelson. Today, it has become an institution. We are a not-for-profit public benefit corporation with an independent, elected Board of Directors with strong ties to the community.

The Mission Statement of the Berkeley Boosters / Police Activities League reflects our commitment to providing positive developmental life experiences to a diverse, low-income constituency of young people throughout the Berkeley community. We do this by providing activities that develop strong relationships across artificially constructed divides of race, gender, age and social status. We rely on our affiliation with the Berkeley Police Department to provide mentors from a segment of society that is oftentimes looked upon with mistrust and suspicion among our target population. Our Mission Statement, refined in 2002, reads as follows:

"The mission of the Berkeley Boosters Association is to unite the Berkeley Police, businesses and interested citizens in delivering innovative programs that educate and prepare young people to become productive members of our mult-ethnic society. We will accomplish this by brining law enforcement officers, safety personnel and youth together through quality activities designed to develop discipline, self-esteem, interpersonal skills, positive citizenship and community pride."

The Berkeley Boosters Association was formed in response to the Chief of Police's appeal for help in dealing with problems that existed at that time between the Police Department and youth in the City of Berkeley. Our charge then was to build bridges between the Police Department and the community. We organized as a not for profit corporation [501(C) (3)] with an elected Board of Directors.

In 1984, volunteers built a weight room and a boxing gym in the BYA building on Bonar Street. The gym was open every day after school, supervised by youth counselors. On weekends, volunteer police officers took kids to Oakland A's ballgames. Our work with youth was soon recognized on the local as well as the statewide level. In 1985 and again in 1987 the California Governor presented us with the Community Service Award. In 2003, the Berkeley Boosters were honored with both a State Senate and State Assembly proclamation in recognition of our 20 years of service. In a number of years, including 1986, 1988, 2001, and 2003, the Berkeley City Council presented the Berkeley Boosters with proclamations honoring our work with youth at risk through our diversion, outdoor education and athletic programs.

In 1987, we joined the California Police Activities League and the National Police Activities League and since then, have participated in their activities. Dozens of officers have spent countless hours coaching sports, mentoring, serving as docents on our outdoor education trips, communicating with youth through our R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Rap Sessions, and otherwise participating in our community's life by building bridges of trust and understanding between at-risk youth and our Police Department personnel.

Our first sizeable grant was from the Office of Criminal Justice Planning, soon followed by a federal grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in Washington, D.C. Our staff grew slowly: a full time program manager, part time youth counselors, AmeriCorps volunteers, an Administrative Director, and a full time PAL officer.



YOUTH ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS

Our Outdoor Education program, based in part on the "Outward Bound" concept, grew from year to year. We started a sailing program in conjunction with Cal Adventures, Berkeley Yacht Club and the Olympic Circle Sailing Club. Recently, we have been instrumental in forming a Marina-Wide Youth Sailing Collaborative with these organizations as members. We have operated a successful Environmental Education / Outdoor Education summer day camp program for several years which includes the 125-mile Clif Bar Bicycling Challenge and a Backpacking Adventures program that teaches leave-no-trace camping ethics.
Aside from the traditional PAL Sports Activities that we offer to youth - such as Golf, Softball, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer and Tae Kwon Do, we also provide a unique series of outdoor education activities. We have adopted the "Outward Bound" philosophy which is based on an understanding that formal schooling in not a `natural' mode of learning for many young people, and in particular not a learning style of choice for at-risk youth. Academic learning will not be successful unless you first address a student's needs for self-esteem, positive interpersonal relationships, and other social skills training (Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs"). Today's inner-city youth grow up isolated not only from nature and a healthy respect for their own responsibility for the ecological health of our planet, but also isolated socially, oftentimes even from their most immediate social groups. Our summer program seeks to address each of these needs in an in-depth, life changing fashion through non-traditional sports activities. Our youth participate in sports such as sailing, sea kayaking, backpacking, rock-climbing and bicycling.

Our Outdoor Education program, is based on principles of exploration and discovery, opens worlds of possibilities for our young people. Traditional classroom settings often fail to capture the hearts and minds of the young people we work with. Primarily kinesthetic learners, their inattentiveness in the classroom setting is often falsely attributed to behavior problems or learning disabilities. We have found that by using the outdoors as our classroom, we are able to awaken a sense of wonder in the world about us, a growing understanding of the possibilities within themselves, and a desire to work well with others that is often found lacking in these young people's academic careers. We use our curriculum, with nature as the backdrop, to build useful life skills such as trust, self esteem, overcoming obstacles, teamwork, and a respect and appreciation for diversity - both of our natural environment as well as in the people around us.

We are proud to have a long history of serving a culturally diverse population. Last year, we provided over 25,000 hours of service to more than 1,000 young people in all of our programs. Our program participants range in age from 7 years to 18 years old. Ethnically, we provide service to a population that reflects the community we serve:
Ø 35% African American
Ø 28% Latino/Hispanic
Ø 14% Caucasian
Ø 14% Declined to Identify
Ø 9% Bi- or Multi-Racial
Geographically, we provide our services primarily to residents of Berkeley, or to students attending Berkeley schools. 51% of the young people we serve are Female, 49% Male.







PUBLIC SAFETY / YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS

In 1992, Telegraph Avenue had several riots involving looting of stores as an outgrowth of the Rodney King trial verdict and aftermath in Los Angeles. A Blue Ribbon committee headed by then Mayor Loni Hancock asked the Berkeley Boosters and Break The Cycle to organize a group of racially integrated young people to come up with some answers. In 1993, we organized the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (Racial and Ethnic Sharing Providing Empowerment to our Community Today) Team. This team organized workshops in the schools and each weekend patrolled Telegraph Avenue in groups of four. We successfully reduced crime and violence on Telegraph Avenue. This program was fully funded by the City of Berkeley.

Because our R.E.S.P.E.C.T. program was so successful on Telegraph Avenue, in 1995 the City of Berkeley asked the Berkeley Boosters to organize a similar program on Shattuck Avenue. The downtown business district at that time was hurting: aggressive panhandling, drunk and disorderly, and people suffering from mental illnesses had driven away regular customers. Our R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Team uniforms were too "gang-like" for the City mothers and fathers. We designed new uniforms and the program was named the Berkeley Guides. The Guides have police radios and work closely with the Berkeley Police Department and other city departments. They work five days each week, from 11am to 8pm. In the past, as many as six Guides have patrolled the downtown, currently we have three. The Guides handle problematic street behavior such as fights, drunk in public, aggressive panhandling, emergency medical situations, reporting public works needs, and MUCH MORE! If the encounter situations that they need assistance with, they radio the police for help, and have often been instrumental in identifying, assisting in the arrest of, and testifying against criminals.

A violent incident in 1995 lead to another Berkeley Boosters program. A woman was attacked and severely hurt at the North Berkeley BART station. Again, the City came to us for help. We organized the BART Safety Escort program. BART gave us a grant for the purchase of uniforms, radios, and a van, and the City of Berkeley paid for the salaries of the employees. For the last 9 years, we have provided escort services at both the North Berkeley BART station and the Ashby BART station. The program operates during five months in the winter during daylight savings time. At each station, we have 5 people - one adult supervisor and four young people, usually high school or community college students, making this a youth employment program as well as a public safety program. They work in pairs, carry flashlights and police radios, and escort BART patrons from the station to their parked cars or their homes.

Contact people:

Cheryl La Rosa Longo, Administrative Director, (phone), (email) Fele Uperesa, Program Coordinator, (phone), (email) De Andre Thompson, Program Director, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (510) 649-0886

Address:

1642 University Avenue Berkeley, CA 94702 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.berkeleyboosters.org

Directions:

I-80 Freeway to Berkeley, University Avenue Exit, heading East towards UC Berkeley. We are one block East of California Street.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: North Berkeley BART ,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5   Nearest Bus Stop: AC Transit Line 51, 1 minute walk