Curfew center should be
chosen by week’s end

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Officials plan to identify a site for a curfew center to serve most of the Northeast by week’s end.
Ron George, project manager of violence prevention initiatives for the city’s Department of Human Services, said the city will resort to using public property if no agencies come forward to host the center.
"We’re still looking for a site," he said. "We’ll start trying to come up with something."
The volunteer-run facilities provide a holding place of sorts for children who are found outside after curfew, which is 10:30 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends for those ages 13 to 17, and 9 p.m. on weeknights and 10 p.m. on weekends for youths under 13. The new center would service the 2nd, 7th and 8th police districts.
The six centers currently operating throughout the city rely on private agencies, many of them faith-based, that already provide services to the area and can certify non-indebtedness to the city.
The proposed 11-month operating budget for each center is $187,500. The other Northeast center, in the 15th Police District, is based out of Frankford Group Ministries on Griscom Street.
George said that a church in the 2nd district showed an interest in running the site, but didn’t have enough space. In addition to hosting a meeting on the curfew center attended by Mayor John Street on Sept. 11, George went to a meeting of the Burholme Civic Association last week to get additional volunteers and to see if any groups are interested in stepping forward. He planned to also attend a meeting of the Lawncrest Civic Association on Tuesday.
DHS is considering designating the new center for just the 2nd and 7th districts and letting the 8th district use the 15th district center because it’s closer. But George plans to let the police decide if their workload and drive time to and from the curfew center warrants a reconfiguration. He added that the curfew centers were originally mapped out according to crime statistics, not geographic area.
Regardless of where the new center is or what areas it serves, it will come to fruition.
"We will open center next month without a doubt," George said. ••
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com