Communities across the country will soon learn about Indio and its commitment to youth.
The city of Indio has been chosen as a national “model city” by the Kids at Hope organization in Phoenix.
As such, the city will serve as an example of how to implement programs and provide opportunities that help youth become successful.
The comprehensive Youth Master Plan, completed several years ago, and the state-of-the-art Indio Teen Center that opened Thursday played major roles in clinching that acknowledgement, said Dave Ison, human services manager with the city.
“We do what we do for the community, not for recognition, but it is nice to get that,” he said.
Kids at Hope was founded by Rick Miller in 1993 and provides training and research for organizations that deal with youth.
His group focuses on implementing youth programs that promote hope — with the belief that hope is what leads youth to success, happiness and optimism.
His organization frowns on the label “youth at risk” and instead adopted the term “kids of hope,” which is how the name of his organization came about.
“The term was a stigma that we were attaching to kids,” Miller said.
He believes that for youth to be successful they need: to be surrounded by adults that believe they can succeed; have meaningful and sustainable relationships with adults; and be able to articulate their future.
Indio provides for all of those, he said.
An example is the Indio Teen Center.
Miller was blown away when he saw it.
“It was very impressive. Very stimulating to kids. Very protective. It provides a safe haven,” he said.
The 12,500-square-foot building cost about $7 million to build, and, from the design to programming, was built with input from teens, said Scott Trujillo, a human services supervisor who oversees youth programming for the city.
He said it was important to include them in the process since they are the ones using it.
The city also gathered input from young people when developing the Youth Master Plan approved by the City Council in 2005. The master plan provides strategies on how to keep the city's large population of youth safe and busy. About 35 percent of the city's population is younger than 18, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
One such master-plan strategy was to upgrade parks and buy land for more parks, which the city has already done.
“It's a long time coming,” Trujillo of the “model city” recognition. “It's our turn to tell our story to the rest of the communities.”
Miller now plans to share the success in Indio across the country as he trains and spreads the word of his Kids of Hope philosophies.
“We have people interested (from) all over the country. They ask, ‘Where can we go to see Kids at Hope in action?' ” Miller said. “We say, ‘Go to the Indio Teen Center.' ”