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Speakers urge continued city support for Alternatives Incorporated youth programs
Summary
Board members and program participants praised Alternatives Incorporated's work with at-risk youth and urged the council to continue funding, saying the city's investment leverages additional grant funds and yields long-term savings compared with incarceration costs.
Speakers representing and affiliated with Alternatives Incorporated urged the council to continue and expand city funding for youth programs. Angelaine Harmony Mason (speaker 11), introduced herself as a new board member and described Alternatives' services to roughly 3,000 children in Hampton and 4,000 across the Virginia Peninsula, emphasizing programs for low-income and at-risk youth and the role those programs played in her own life and civic development.
Long-time board member Rick Bagley (speaker 12) framed funding as an investment with measurable returns: "Every dollar that you spend on alternatives, we're able to leverage that for another $4 that we spend on the young people in the city," he said, and argued preventative spending saves far more than later incarceration costs. Youth participant Shanae Bynum (speaker 13) shared a personal turnaround story, crediting YouthACT and Alternatives with improving her grades and behavior and urging continued support.
