Société pour la protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse

(Washington, DC) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray today kicked off the One City Summer Initiative 2013 (OCSI), a citywide public-private partnership to ensure young people, ages 5 to 24, have a safe and enriching summer experience. The Mayor’s One City Summer Kickoff coincided with the Department of Public Works’ popular Truck Touch at RFK Stadium’s Parking Lot 7. The annual Truck Touch event draws children and families to “touch” and learn about the vehicles used to provide infrastructure support and emergency and medical services around the city.

“The summer can be a great time for children to play, learn and enjoy the outdoors. However, summertime also can be a time when they are unsupervised and not always safe. That’s why we have planned the One City Summer Initiative to be a wide-ranging government and community effort to engage youth of all ages in safe and productive activities,” Mayor Gray said. “One City Summer involves numerous agencies, nonprofits and businesses, offering fun, recreational and educational programming of all kinds, including special events for children, youth, senior citizens, and families.”

This year, One City Summer is focusing efforts in 10 areas, including public housing communities and the DC General Shelter. The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (CYITC) is coordinating OCSI again this year and has added new features. Notable among these is regular evening programming at DC Housing Authority sites that is designed to meet the specific interests and needs of their residents; and a new website to serve as a hub for services and supports for young people at onecityyouth.dc.gov.

At Saturday’s kickoff, agency and community representatives were on hand from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm to give out valuable information about the direct services, resources and myriad opportunities that exist in the city during the summer and beyond. Participants of all ages took advantage of a wide variety of mobile services, from health screenings to voter registration. In addition, activities were targeted to teenagers and school-aged youth, including band performances, a basketball tournament and free food.

...