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**Fort Pierce Police Department’s Courageous Kids Program Bringing New Experiences to City’s Youth**
 February 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 2

The Fort Pierce Police Department’s Courageous Kids outreach program is helping local children learn new skills while exposing them to a variety of ideas, places, and opportunities they may never have experienced otherwise.

Chief Diane  Hobley-Burney implemented the Courageous Kids program shortly after she joined  the department in 2015, making children the primary focus of renewed efforts to  build strong community relationships. The mentoring program improves the  relationship between cops and children by building mutual trust, increasing the  children’s confidence, and teaching them to be courageous. It also provided the  officers with a broader insight of how kids view life.

Courageous  Kids started with officers reading to students in classrooms, and engaging with  them at a weekly playtime in a neighborhood park. Still, Chief Hobley-Burney  knew she wanted to expand the program to include other meaningful experiences  whenever the opportunity would allow. While talking to members of the local  sailing and yacht clubs, she suddenly realized that the Courageous Kids would  love a chance to enjoy an unforgettable boating experience on the beautiful  Fort Pierce waterways.

          Collaborating  with the Treasure Coast Youth Sailing Foundation in the summer of 2017, police  staff developed a plan for the Courageous Kids program to sponsor 12 local boys  and girls in a sailing course that introduced them to wind, water and South Florida  marine life in a way most students said they would never forget.

“It was fun  because I never had a chance to sail before,” said Monecia, 11 years old. “I  learned to sail for the first time, and getting on the boats was the best  memory for me.”
Children from the Fort Pierce Police Department’s Courageous Kids Program learned sailing and teamwork last summer on the beautiful Intracoastal Waterway on Florida’s east coast. Police staff and community volunteers are working with the kids to offer them new experiences while showing them new places and teaching them new skills.
The Courageous  Kids sailing program members met over the course of nine Saturday mornings  throughout the summer on the beautiful Indian River, which is the Intracoastal  Waterway in Fort Pierce and the Treasure Coast. Police staff and Sailing  Foundation volunteers partnered to make sure each session ran smoothly and  provided an enjoyable learning experience for the young sailors, who ranged in  age from 8 to 15 years old.

Most days  included several minutes of verbal instruction, but the excitement came as kids  climbed in the boats and experienced the thrill of being guided by the wind  into a “brave new world” of adventure and beauty. The small boats, made for  beginners, didn’t take long to get out on the water after setting up and  shoving off from the warm sandy beach.

As much as  police staff and Sailing Foundation volunteers wanted to develop future winners  of the America’s Cup, what they really achieved was teaching the children  teamwork, perseverance and a spirit of adventure.

The lessons  often taught the students how to make the best of a bad situation, such as the  windless periods that every sailor must learn to manage. The sailing coaches  used the opportunity to demonstrate that sometimes patience is the best  solution — especially when circumstances cannot be so easily controlled. At  those moments, the kids either sat in the motionless boats talking, or quietly  admiring the beautiful scenery. At other times they turned their youthful  energy into fun water games, shell hunting or tossing a ball around the beach.

What  mattered most was the learning experience as the kids began to realize the  point of it all -- to enjoy Florida’s beauty while working together to  accomplish a goal.

While every  child enjoyed the relaxation of sailing on a gentle breeze, some favored the  occasional powerboat rides when the wind was still. Either way, there was  something for everyone, including a pod of dolphins that swam by close to  shore, bobbing playfully in the small waves and thrilling the children with an  amazing sight that most had never seen.

In addition  to sailing, the Courageous Kids participated in a raft race (after  building the raft themselves) at  one of their weekly park gatherings. Volunteers from the Sailing Foundation  provided the materials, then spent time teaching the kids how to safely work  with power tools, lumber and hardware. The group also delighted in bonding  together at the end of each sailing session, enjoying home-cooked lunches  provided by the volunteers. At the close of each session, the kids went home to  ponder the moments of the day.

At the end  of the nine-week program, parents were invited to a wrap-up event where each  child was presented a completion certificate and a medallion, courtesy of the  Sailing Foundation. The children and volunteers talked about how much fun they  had  and  began making plans for future sailing opportunities.

The  Courageous Kids sailing program offered a window into a new world for the  children, and the parents were impressed with  the results. “It was a wonderful program allowing the kids to experience  something they would never, ever get to do,” said Takeshia, mother of four  children in the group. “They learned a lot, and they really enjoyed it.”

Police and  Sailing Foundation members are already working on plans for the next Courageous  Kids sailing outreach. In the meantime, officers continue meeting kids at the  weekly park gatherings, talking, playing and mentoring the future leaders of  the city.

With  additional Courageous Kids activities on the horizon, it’s an exciting time to  be a child in the City of Fort Pierce.        

**For more information, contact:**          Ed Cunningham          Public Information Officer          Fort Pierce Police Department          (772)  467-6801

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The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

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