Cleveland program keeps young men off the streets and on the court

CLEVELAND — As Cleveland continues to battle with a scarcity of law enforcement officials, metropolis officers search for new methods to scale back crime. One idea concerned getting younger folks off the streets and onto the court docket.

This summer season, town launched Hoops After Darkish with the assistance of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The six-week program, which culminated this week, gave males ages 18-36 an opportunity to really feel like NBA all-stars.

This system concerned tryouts to kind eight groups, and people groups competed over a number of weeks in an NBA-style basketball event.

However this system concerned extra than simply basketball.

Earlier than every recreation, gamers have been required to attend workshops to be taught sure life expertise, being job prepared and being financially steady.

Selassie Wilson tried out for this system after listening to about it from his brother who additionally took half.

“At first, it was only for basketball, however as time went alongside we bought launched to the workshops and networking with completely different folks,” mentioned Wilson. “It’s simply serving to uplift the group and produce us collectively.”

This system was a part of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s complete violence prevention technique.

“Applications like midnight basketball have lengthy proven to scale back crime in lots of cities throughout the nation,” Bibb mentioned courtside on the championship recreation for Hoops After Darkish on Monday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. “It ought to really feel, residents of town really feel optimistic that we’re giving these younger leaders energetic issues to do to become involved of their group and realizing that these packages can really make a distinction.”