‘Why not have more of this?’
Kayla Canne – Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY NETWORK – in the D&C on 2/19/23 on page 6A
Freemonta Strong was 14 years old when he started to envision a new youth center around the corner from his home on Lenox Street in Rochester.
• It was 2014, and the Center for Teen Empowerment was big on yoga that year. Staff at the nonprofit, which hires city teenagers to work as youth organizers in their neighborhoods, asked Strong and his peers to close their eyes and picture a vibrant space.
• What would it look like?
A row of abandoned houses across from the group’s rental space on Genesee Street became an opportunity. If Teen Empowerment could strip the shuttered buildings down to vacant lots, what would young people want to see there instead — in their own community, near their own homes?