New Williamsburg Initiative Has Police Tutoring At-Risk Students

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN – Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on Tuesday announced more than half a million dollars in additional funding for safety in the borough. NYC Together, a partnership between area police and local students who are facing school suspension, received $37,000 of the funding to outfit a multimedia learning center inside Williamsburg's 90th Precinct station house on Union Avenue for officers to tutor students as an alternative to suspending them for disciplinary problems.

Additional money will go to security cameras, bulletproof glass and Operation Safe Shopper, which repositions security cameras toward the street to help police. But the topic of the day was Adams' commitment to the NYC Together program.

"These are great young people. I was at-risk when I was their age," Adams stated at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "Public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity."

Underscoring his commitment to public safety, Adams listed a few key achievements during his tenure, including an increase in security cameras and an effort to improve police relations within the communities they patrol to create "a healthy environment to raise healthy children."

The borough president's investment of $37,000 will go toward the NYC Together learning center at the Williamsburg station house. A new interactive board and printer will soon be in use at the learning center where officers mentor and help students with their schoolwork.

Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Diana Reyna, a Williamsburg native, spoke highly of how her community has improved in recent years.

"Williamsburg rose from the ashes to be a hip community, which comes with its own issues," Reyna said to slight laughter. "When we lift one person, we lift all of Brooklyn."

Adams reinforced the value of the new investment, saying that his plan for at-risk youths was "intervention before handcuffs," an idea that the new learning center aims to reinforce.

The money was allocated from the Brooklyn Borough President's 2017 fiscal budget.

Photo by Jason Nuckolls/Patch

Correction: This story initially said $537,000 would go toward NYC Together. The $537,000 is the entire amount allocated to safety projects, with $37,000 specifically going to NYC Together.