BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Parks are where children learn to explore, but as 23ABC's Breanna Polk explains there's a group of kids that are doing more than exploring. They're changing their neighborhood park for future generations.
Transitional Youth Mobilizing for Change, also known as TYM4Change, is at the forefront of revitalizing Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Park in East Bakersfield. Youth volunteers and community activists tell me there is no better time than now.
“We’re out here cleaning glass off the tennis courts, we’re working at the waters, we’re over there in the park cleaning up, we’re helping restore the trash from the community garden so it can be usable again and get back in action. It’s time to revitalize this whole community,” said Jovon Dangerfield, the executive director of TYM4Change.
A community, Dangerfield says, means so much to both the youth and adult leaders that make up this area.
Leaders like Ren Amaya, who joined TYM4Change at the age of 18 and has been a part of the organization ever since, says in addition to the park clean up he looks forward to the renovation project all thanks to the partnership with the city’s recreation and parks department.
“I think it helps me have a perspective into what we’ve done as an organization from then to now and what we can continue to do. What the youth that I work with are into, how they want to make an impact, what they want to make an impact on, and just helping them grow not only as people in the workforce but just as people themselves."
Amaya says during his childhood, he attended community parks every summer with his family which has now become a core memory for him as an adult. Looking back, Amaya says TYM4Change has now put him in a position where he can help the youth
“For me, TYM4Change was the thing that I needed most as a kid. Give them a safe spot to play, to be, clean up the area for them. Being able to have that peer-to-peer relationship with them. Trying to give resources and a place to be, things to do, and a way to feel good about themselves.”
Dangerfield adds the renovation of MLK Park is set to kick off early next year and is just one example of how powerful community activism and leadership is even when it starts at a young age.
“Seeing people out here that care is going to help this. Jobs coming around this area is going to help this. The project when it gets up and built everybody is going to want to come and converge, basketball tournaments, swim meets, after school sports, it's going to go down.”
Dangerfield says there are volunteer opportunities available with TYM4Change.
