Graffiti Abatement Taken Up By Arts Alliance Youth

As a good example of how youth in the community are working to improve their neighborhoods, the Santa Barbara Arts Alliance youth have adopted the Milpas Street corridor from Canon Perdido to Cabrillo Boulevard. The youth are primarily conducting graffiti abatement along Milpas Street.

City Parks and Recreation department staff, a member of the Franklin Advisory Committee, and the Arts Alliance youth participants had their first walk-through on November 17 with two more scheduled for December 7 and 14. Beginning in January, youth will be doing a weekly walk through every Tuesday from 3:30-5:30pm to remove graffiti, pick up trash, and also scrubbing/washing trash cans and wiping down news stands.

The Santa Barbara Arts Alliance is a special program that supports positive youth development through the arts and is managed through the Neighborhood and Outreach Services section of the City’s Parks and Recreation Department. The program encourages youth to participate in organized art projects that provide a community service element as an alternative to youth violence and/or expensive graffiti vandalism.

City Staff and volunteer mentors provide youth with ongoing adult mentorship and year round skill- building activities centered on the creative arts, including mural creation, digital graphics, silk-screening and photography. The Santa Barbara Arts Alliance helps to reduce and minimize all forms of vandalism, violence and youth delinquency. It successfully helps local youth to re-integrate into the community. The program is housed at the Franklin Neighborhood Center and coordinated by Ricardo Venegas, NOS Coordinator II. For more information, please call 963-7605.