South Bend Venues Parks & Arts creates new program for teens By: Maura Johnson
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, in collaboration with local leaders, businesses, and community members, have launched a new monthly program that empowers teens to become positive leaders in their communities.
The program, “Friday Night Life” features breakout sessions led by local leaders on topics like saving money, setting goals, maintaining healthy relationships, and breaking the abuse cycle, in addition to games and activities.
“It’s important for our community’s youth to have a safe space to connect with others in a positive way,” said VPA Director of Community Programming, Cynthia Taylor. “The mentorships created through these types of events can be lifechanging for many.”
ABC57 News in South Bend, Ind. covers all of Michiana including St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte and Marshall counties in Indiana and Berrien, Cass, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties in Mich.
Emergency food initiative. (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)
Attention around the coronavirus has focused primarily on case numbers and deaths since the start of the pandemic, as officials at the local, state and federal levels race to control the virus and conserve medical resources until vaccines and treatments are more widely available.
Behind the scenes, however, a coalition of local public, private and nonprofit organizations, including Cultivate Food Rescue, the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, the city of South Bend and South Bend Venues Parks and Arts, the South Bend Community School Corp., the United Way of St. Joseph County, enFocus and the University of Notre Dame, has been working to address a less obvious, but no less urgent consequence of the pandemic: growing hunger in the community.
The idea was born before construction at the newly redeveloped Howard Park in downtown South Bend even began.
City of South Bend Venues Parks and Arts executive director Aaron Perri wanted to bring a new and different amenity to the ice skating rink and open green space. He wanted to bring a restaurant.
âWe were thinking something that was open for four seasons, would be family friendly, where a group of colleagues could go to get a drink and something that was local and something that fit the parkâs look and feel,â he said.
The city submitted a request for proposals for the space and Perri said three bids were submitted and considered with South Bend Chocolate Company owner and founder Mark Tarner ultimately succeeding.