Forming friendships, changing lives
In nine years, PAL has grown and impacted many kids
By Carson Fant and D.J. Smith
NLR Times
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Since September 1998, when 120 kids took to the field as flag football teams representing the 10 North Little Rock police substations in the newly formed Police Athletic League (PAL), the program has grown tenfold, now numbering more than 1,200 kids who participated in a multitude of year-round programs.
“The whole basis of PAL is trying to provide kids with opportunity,” said Police Sgt. Scott Yielding, one of those responsible in forming the program that launched nine years ago.
Those opportunities include realizing life’s potential; former PAL kids of other chapters include: boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and entertainers Billy Joel and Bill Cosby.
The PAL program has benefited innumerable children in 343 chapters nationwide since its foundation in New York City in 1914 by Police Commissioner Arthur Woods. A 1914 New York Times article championed the creation of “safe play streets” by commenting it would “reduce the temptations of wrongdoings by keeping children off the streets and by giving them a chance for wholesome play under proper supervision.”
“In Rose City at the time [1998], the big problem was kids were just walking in packs down the middle of the street,” Yielding said. “Every crime watch meeting you went to was [comments on] ‘kids, kids, kids.’”
Then Assistant City Attorney Paul Suskie, with Yielding, Sgt. Jim Bowman, and local Deli-Mart owner Linda Tredway, started with a budget of $5,000 from the state’s Juvenile Emergency fund and a $7,000 procurement from the city championed by Mayor Pat Hays. These and other volunteers put into motion a program that is now recognized nationally for its innovative – and frugal – ability to impact the kids and communities of North Little Rock.
In the past, dive, art, photography, and archery programs have been offered. Football, baseball, T-ball, basketball and cheerleading have become the core activities, but 18 different programs are now available.
More than 80 volunteers, still predominately police officers but enhanced with willing parents, using “around $60,000 a year,” now allow these kids to occupy their time in positive endeavors. At about $50 per child, the results are hard to ignore.
The drop in juvenile crime, though not immediate, soon became significant as more programs and volunteers were incorporated to increase the numbers of kids participating. Statistics from the summers of 2002 and 2003, when a full-time dedicated PAL officer to oversee the program was established, were compared. In Rose City area alone juvenile arrests went from 26 to two and burglaries were down 40 percent, Yielding said.
“Well, once the programming really kicked in, and we got a got foothold of the number of kids working it, the [crime] pretty much stopped,” Yielding explained. “I feel like they just had different activities to participate in. They were just given something to do.”
Officer Matt Grace has been in the program from the start as a coach, and is now the dedicated PAL officer responsible for the day-to-day operation. Grace said the impact alone in developing a closer relationship between the police officers and neighborhood kids is worth it and marked by “so many stories [from officers]…The kids talk to you now.”
Yielding remembered when recent North Little Rock High School graduate Rod Jackson and other kids first came out to play PAL baseball saying, “Rod’s been with us basically the whole time PAL’s been here. He’s kind of grown up with us.”
“The first day of practice we threw the gloves out on the floor,” Yielding said. “They all put them on backwards. Baseball was just something they never really thought about.”
Though Jackson stopped playing in PAL programs, that didn’t stop him from being involved in a bigger way. He worked long days on the baseball and softball fields “with officer Grace helping him to lay sod, shovel dirt, you name it…[It’s] a reflection on Jackson’s character,” Yielding said.
“He’s volunteered every bit of it. You can just tell that he wants to be involved and help to give back. For an 18-year-old to spend every day out at the ballpark working his butt off for no reason, that’s something you don’t really see very often.”
Jackson said umpiring was difficult with fans and coaches yelling at him, “But it was all worth it for the kids.”
In August, Jackson will report for Air Force basic training in San Antonio. After the six-week training course, Jackson said he will realize a desire to be able to specialize in the field of medicine. Yielding’s wife Christina said they plan to attend Jackson’s graduation ceremony, “because we are so proud of him.” Having gotten to know him over the years the Yieldings have spent coaching him, Jackson has become “another son to us.”
PAL is already planning to expand into other areas of North Little Rock and opened a part-time center in Levy this July. Both Yielding and Grace are looking forward to the opportunities that a new center will provide. Former North Little Rock police officer Darin Archer and local businessman Lindsey Clyburn, who donated the building that serves as the center, are both black belts in tae kwon do and will run the center.
Archer’s 1995-2003 Ranger program of scuba diving and cave exploration predated PAL but became the first official program besides flag football when Archer agreed to Yielding’s suggestion it be incorporated in 1998.
“We wanted for about two or three years to try to get back out in reach of more of the city, and Levy is where we wanted to do it,” Yielding said. “I can’t tell you how excited we are about Levy.”
The center in Levy will offer tae kwon do, dance and sewing classes, among other activities. “That center is going to open up a lot of doors for the kids in that area,” Grace said. “Hopefully in the future we can look at expanding to different areas, maybe downtown, Lakewood and Park Hill also.”
Grace said, “We had a good year as far as family involvement – a lot more than I can remember,” but Yielding added he sees a real need to create teams because “there are so many kids that are wanting to play.”
“That’s the goal – to keep expanding [and] more money for more equipment – we could do a lot with it,” Grace said. “More volunteers would be nice.”
Click here to visit the National PAL website
By Carson Fant and D.J. Smith
NLR Times
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Since September 1998, when 120 kids took to the field as flag football teams representing the 10 North Little Rock police substations in the newly formed Police Athletic League (PAL), the program has grown tenfold, now numbering more than 1,200 kids who participated in a multitude of year-round programs.
“The whole basis of PAL is trying to provide kids with opportunity,” said Police Sgt. Scott Yielding, one of those responsible in forming the program that launched nine years ago.
Those opportunities include realizing life’s potential; former PAL kids of other chapters include: boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and entertainers Billy Joel and Bill Cosby.
The PAL program has benefited innumerable children in 343 chapters nationwide since its foundation in New York City in 1914 by Police Commissioner Arthur Woods. A 1914 New York Times article championed the creation of “safe play streets” by commenting it would “reduce the temptations of wrongdoings by keeping children off the streets and by giving them a chance for wholesome play under proper supervision.”
“In Rose City at the time [1998], the big problem was kids were just walking in packs down the middle of the street,” Yielding said. “Every crime watch meeting you went to was [comments on] ‘kids, kids, kids.’”Then Assistant City Attorney Paul Suskie, with Yielding, Sgt. Jim Bowman, and local Deli-Mart owner Linda Tredway, started with a budget of $5,000 from the state’s Juvenile Emergency fund and a $7,000 procurement from the city championed by Mayor Pat Hays. These and other volunteers put into motion a program that is now recognized nationally for its innovative – and frugal – ability to impact the kids and communities of North Little Rock.
In the past, dive, art, photography, and archery programs have been offered. Football, baseball, T-ball, basketball and cheerleading have become the core activities, but 18 different programs are now available.
More than 80 volunteers, still predominately police officers but enhanced with willing parents, using “around $60,000 a year,” now allow these kids to occupy their time in positive endeavors. At about $50 per child, the results are hard to ignore.
The drop in juvenile crime, though not immediate, soon became significant as more programs and volunteers were incorporated to increase the numbers of kids participating. Statistics from the summers of 2002 and 2003, when a full-time dedicated PAL officer to oversee the program was established, were compared. In Rose City area alone juvenile arrests went from 26 to two and burglaries were down 40 percent, Yielding said.
“Well, once the programming really kicked in, and we got a got foothold of the number of kids working it, the [crime] pretty much stopped,” Yielding explained. “I feel like they just had different activities to participate in. They were just given something to do.”
Officer Matt Grace has been in the program from the start as a coach, and is now the dedicated PAL officer responsible for the day-to-day operation. Grace said the impact alone in developing a closer relationship between the police officers and neighborhood kids is worth it and marked by “so many stories [from officers]…The kids talk to you now.”
Yielding remembered when recent North Little Rock High School graduate Rod Jackson and other kids first came out to play PAL baseball saying, “Rod’s been with us basically the whole time PAL’s been here. He’s kind of grown up with us.”
“The first day of practice we threw the gloves out on the floor,” Yielding said. “They all put them on backwards. Baseball was just something they never really thought about.”
Though Jackson stopped playing in PAL programs, that didn’t stop him from being involved in a bigger way. He worked long days on the baseball and softball fields “with officer Grace helping him to lay sod, shovel dirt, you name it…[It’s] a reflection on Jackson’s character,” Yielding said.
“He’s volunteered every bit of it. You can just tell that he wants to be involved and help to give back. For an 18-year-old to spend every day out at the ballpark working his butt off for no reason, that’s something you don’t really see very often.”
Jackson said umpiring was difficult with fans and coaches yelling at him, “But it was all worth it for the kids.”
In August, Jackson will report for Air Force basic training in San Antonio. After the six-week training course, Jackson said he will realize a desire to be able to specialize in the field of medicine. Yielding’s wife Christina said they plan to attend Jackson’s graduation ceremony, “because we are so proud of him.” Having gotten to know him over the years the Yieldings have spent coaching him, Jackson has become “another son to us.”
PAL is already planning to expand into other areas of North Little Rock and opened a part-time center in Levy this July. Both Yielding and Grace are looking forward to the opportunities that a new center will provide. Former North Little Rock police officer Darin Archer and local businessman Lindsey Clyburn, who donated the building that serves as the center, are both black belts in tae kwon do and will run the center.Archer’s 1995-2003 Ranger program of scuba diving and cave exploration predated PAL but became the first official program besides flag football when Archer agreed to Yielding’s suggestion it be incorporated in 1998.
“We wanted for about two or three years to try to get back out in reach of more of the city, and Levy is where we wanted to do it,” Yielding said. “I can’t tell you how excited we are about Levy.”
The center in Levy will offer tae kwon do, dance and sewing classes, among other activities. “That center is going to open up a lot of doors for the kids in that area,” Grace said. “Hopefully in the future we can look at expanding to different areas, maybe downtown, Lakewood and Park Hill also.”
Grace said, “We had a good year as far as family involvement – a lot more than I can remember,” but Yielding added he sees a real need to create teams because “there are so many kids that are wanting to play.”
“That’s the goal – to keep expanding [and] more money for more equipment – we could do a lot with it,” Grace said. “More volunteers would be nice.”
Click here to visit the National PAL website
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