Monessen may create new board focused on youths

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Monessen plans to create a Youth and Young Citizens Board. 

This month, city council held the first reading of an ordinance that would create the youth board if it passes a second reading in April.

Mayor Matt Shorraw said he got some information from Teresa Seh of Monessen Communities That Care. Seh has worked with youth in the city for more than 20 years.

The CTC and Monessen City School District work together to put out the Pennsylvania Youth Survey to kids in the community.  

For more than 30 years, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency has sponsored a survey of students in sixth, eight, 10th and 12th grades to learn about their behavior, attitudes and knowledge concerning alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and violence. 

The survey is conducted every two years as it tracks essentially the same students through the years. 

Shorraw said Seh shared that over the course of the past two decades, one thing that has consistently stood out in the data received from the survey is a sense of community detachment.

“The kids can’t wait to get out of here when they graduate and that’s one of our problems because we have population loss,” Shorraw said. “If we can’t keep the ones who are already here, how are we going to attract new ones to come in?”

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