VENTURA : Task Force, Mayor Discuss Youth Events

Ventura Mayor Tom Buford was trying to figure out a way for teen-agers from all over the city to get together and have a good time.

“If we had a co-ed softball tournament, would kids come?” Buford asked a crowd of teen-agers and city officials gathered in city hall Thursday. “Does co-ed make sense?”

It was the first meeting of the Ventura Youth Task Force, and the mayor was hard at work, applying the resources of the city government to a new challenge. A departure from the usual fare of development proposals, street repairs and utility rate increases, the Youth Task Force is a chance for the city to serve constituents who are mostly too young to vote or pay property taxes.

Buford was participating in a brainstorming session, helping members of the task force dream up an event that would be their first tangible achievement.

Teen-agers and adults on the task force threw out a host of suggestions, including the softball tournament, an outdoor dance, a youth conference, an arts festival and a maritime-themed event at the harbor.

A subcommittee on “strategic planning” suggested developing a vision for the task force, which includes students, City Council members, police, city staff members and representatives from nonprofit organizations and social service agencies.

Another subcommittee, charged with an “assessment of needs and resources,” decided to survey the city’s youth.

Task force member Mike Forrest, a senior at Buena High School and president of student government there, acknowledged that there was “a lot of bureaucracy enveloping the task force, which spawned three subcommittees at its very first meeting.”

“We just need to focus,” Forrest said.

Still, students said they were optimistic about the chances for the task force to overcome the bureaucracy and produce results.

Fidel Morales, 20, a staff member at the Westpark Recreation Center, said he thought a citywide street festival for youth, perhaps including an evening dance, is a good idea.

“It sounds like something a lot of people would be interested in. I think it will be done,” Morales said.

Teen-agers said that while some might see it as a waste for the city to throw a big party for kids, an event is needed to bring youths from different neighborhoods together and get their attention.

“If they see that we’re doing something fun, that will get people interested,” St. Bonaventure High School senior Amber Iwasiuk said. Then, she said, students could be drawn into more serious task force programs.

The task force first met in September as the Youth Issues Discussion Group.