OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Raleigh City Council Work Session on Youth Engagement and Curfew – August 18, 2026

City CouncilTuesday, August 18, 2026
BodyRaleigh, North Carolina
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, August 18, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:17:05
Transcript — Verbatim
11:27

Gabble us to order.

11:29

Welcome back from our hiatus, and uh we have uh work session on youth engagement and of course the curfew.

11:39

Uh Jonathan Lambert Melton will be 30 minutes late.

11:44

If we can note that in the minutes, and then I will invite up Ken Um Tisler of Raleigh Parks, Taisha Mosley of Community Engagement, and Amanda Roll of the Police Department.

11:56

Good morning.

11:57

Um Taisha Mosley with the community engagement department.

12:02

And yes, as the mayor stated, this is going to be a joint presentation.

12:06

So you will see multiple faces here at the podium.

12:09

I am just getting us started.

12:11

Everyone will be available for questions on their specific programs as we wrap up.

12:17

So today we will talk a little bit about context.

12:22

We'll discuss briefly our current programs, we'll spend some time talking about the engagement efforts that took place this summer, and then next steps.

13:49

So you'll hear that, and we're referring to individual that are individuals that are elementary school age.

13:59

Uh over the age of 18.

14:00

So you'll hear that throughout the presentation.

14:03

Um, so in the youth area across all three departments, we have programs like Americor, Foster Grandparents, which is where we have individuals over the age of 55, volunteer in local elementary schools and daycare centers.

14:17

Uh, the parks and recreation department does a wonderful job of identifying out of school time across all of those programs that you see on the screen, the Raleigh Police Department having Raleigh um youth summer camps, their leadership program, and mentorship opportunities.

14:47

Uh it's an in its inception in 1983 was um young people working in community centers over the summer.

14:55

And I just wanted to take a moment to point out the growth in the program since then.

15:00

So within Summer Youth, they do additional programming with young people.

15:03

We've had two mental health summits, job readiness training, which is open to anybody who even wants to apply to Raleigh Summer Youth, walking them through the application process there, several professional development opportunities, and some may not know that Raleigh Summer Youth also has a virtual pathway.

15:22

So teenagers are able to work virtually with local businesses like York properties or nonprofits like the Garner Road Community Center.

15:31

There they tackle real role challenges that the businesses identify, and a part of their job is proposing a solution at the end of their summer.

15:39

We also have our digital impact program and both the connectors and the ambassadors work to bridge the digital divide.

15:47

They pass out computers to low-income families, they host programs like advice about a device, where anyone can bring their cell phone, computer, iPad, and have the young people help them uh problem solve.

16:03

And with that, I am going to turn it over to my colleague, Ken Histler in Raleigh Parks.

16:12

Good morning, Ken Histor Assistant Director Raleigh Parks.

16:15

Glad to be here with you today.

16:16

Uh a nice little transition as we think about the collaboration that Tayshia just talked about is that Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program.

16:22

For those of you who may not be aware, a lot of those kids come and work with us.

16:25

So they're in our summer camps, they're working in our park operations.

16:28

So it's a great example of how our two groups work together.

16:31

Now, as typical in some of my slides, you have a lot of information here and a lot of data to look at.

16:35

You can but what I want to do today is talk about a couple things that you're going to see in there.

16:39

And one is this is data that we can pull out of our registration system.

16:42

What it doesn't capture is all of that self-directed passive use of our greenway trails, our our outdoor uh courts, our our disk golf courses, our and those other opportunities that people have to recreate within our spaces.

16:55

The other thing I do want to draw attention to is things like I want to put in there is contact hours and also um connections.

17:01

So contact hours are how often do we have those teens in our programs, and then how frequently are they interacting in our programs?

17:08

What I did want to draw attention to is a couple things, and as Tane talked about out-of-school time is really important to Raleigh Park.

17:13

So when that school bell ends, what are the opportunities that we have for both our youth, our teens, and we'll talk a little bit about adults in a minute.

17:20

So two of those is our out-of-school time includes our camps, our specialty camps, our traditional camp, and our after-school programs.

17:27

What we want to do is make sure those are geographically represented in our after-school programs spread out across Raleigh.

17:33

We also want to make sure they have an opportunity to get into different things.

17:36

So when we get into our specialty camps, we're talking about things like entrepreneur camps.

17:40

You guys may have remembered right before you broke for the summer.

17:42

We had a bunch of teams that were in here learning about what government looks like.

17:45

Do you want to be in a job with RTN?

17:47

Or we even had them out at our greenhouse.

17:49

So we're looking at those opportunities that the youth, the teens want to be able to learn more about skilled trades, entrepreneur camp.

17:55

We had them over to IronWorks.

17:56

What does it look like to start a small business in Raleigh?

18:00

The other one I wanted to draw your attention to is our Raleigh Teen Connect program.

18:03

It's a membership where our teens can come in and they get opportunities for additional exposures.

18:08

An example of that is having the opportunity to go to our pools as part of our after-school program.

18:13

We do believe that basic learn to swim programs and just provides them the access to do it.

18:18

The other ones are bringing in special speakers that may speak to a trade that you speak to a skill, something that is more of their interest.

18:24

The other thing I want you to make sure that understand we're really fortunate in Raleigh Parks that we do have program area phase focused groups talking like teens and youth, but really the conduit is all of our general programming.

18:35

You'll see at the bottom of that slide is our general program offerings.

18:38

Those are the ones that are just its martial arts, it's arts, it's cultural, it's history.

18:42

It's those are all the things that happen through the 50 buildings that we have within Raleigh Parks.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Youth Programs███████████████████████████████████████████43%
Public Safety█████████████████████████████████33%
Juvenile Justice█████████9%
Parks and Recreation█████5%
Public Engagement███3%
Procedural███3%
Workforce Development██2%
Technology and Innovation██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Raleigh City Council Work Session on Youth Engagement and Curfew – August 18, 2026

The August 18, 2026 work session focused on two main topics: a review of current youth engagement programs across city departments and a proposed youth protection curfew ordinance. The meeting began at 4:30 PM and was recessed for lunch at 12:36 PM, with plans to resume the curfew discussion at 1:00 PM. Presentations were given by representatives from the Community Engagement Department, Raleigh Parks, and the Raleigh Police Department.

Youth Engagement Programs Presentation

  • Taisha Mosley (Community Engagement) introduced the session, outlining programs such as the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program, which includes a virtual pathway where teens work with local businesses and propose solutions. The program has grown since its 1983 inception.
  • Ken Histler (Raleigh Parks) highlighted out-of-school time programs, including camps, after-school programs, and the Raleigh Teen Connect program. He noted 1,200 part-time staff ages 15–25, with 650 of those ages 15–19. The parks department also runs a federal work study program with NC State and other colleges, and has hired 12 full-time employees from its internship program.
  • Amanda Roll (Raleigh Police Department) described youth-facing programs: a cadet program for ages 14–20 (24 cadets in three years), a paid college internship, and a community impact division created in October 2025. She reported that 18% of police recruits come from the internship program, and 19 interns have been hired in the past three years. (Note: the transcript contains an apparent inconsistency: "19 of our 14 interns".)
  • Summer engagement efforts included Raleigh Hoop Nights (309 teens engaged), a "Something to Say" teen hall (55 teens), and a survey with 15 touchpoints (8 group discussions, 7 tabling events). Key survey findings: teens want more unstructured hangout spaces, later hours, increased awareness of city offerings, and a voice in decision-making. Barriers cited included programs not being close by, lack of transportation, and not knowing what is available. Teens requested more opportunities to be heard and lead initiatives.
  • Council discussion included questions about centralized communication with Wake County schools, use of TikTok (city policy prohibits it; alternatives via influencers or Instagram were discussed), tracking of youth not served by city programs, and the potential for reimagining the Raleigh Youth Council (currently 60 students, self-governing). Councilmember Branch suggested continuing Hoop Nights year-round, and the police department confirmed plans for future events at Islamic Association of Raleigh and Jewish Federation of Raleigh.

Curfew Ordinance Discussion

  • Karen McDonald (City Attorney’s Office) introduced the proposed Youth Protection and Curfew Ordinance, drafted per council direction from the July 7 meeting. The ordinance is intended to protect juveniles from victimization and reduce late-night crime.
  • Chief Boyce (Raleigh Police Department) presented juvenile crime data: in 2025, there were 821 cases where a juvenile was a suspect; in 2026 (year-to-date as of August 18), that number is 894, a 9% increase. He highlighted a rise in serious offenses: assaults/aggravated assaults (50 in 2026 vs. 30 in 2025), person shots (7 in 2025, 14 in 2026), and shots fired into vehicles/dwellings (5 in 2025, 12 in 2026). The number of rounds discharged increased from 15 to 190. The July 4–5, 2026 incidents involved six shootings, four cleared by arrest, two still active. Juveniles were involved in the majority of those shootings. Chief Boyce emphasized that a curfew is a tool, not a fix, and noted that many juveniles obtain guns from late-night car break-ins.
  • Proposed ordinance details: applies to persons under 18 (not married, serving in armed forces, or emancipated) from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM daily. Exceptions include being accompanied by a parent or adult 21+, lawful employment, emergencies, school/religious/recreational/civic/governmental activities, First Amendment activity, private events or errands, college/university students, U.S. armed forces, and public events (e.g., State Fair, concerts, sporting events). Enforcement requires officers to verify age and determine if an exception applies before taking action. Violations: juveniles enter juvenile court process; parents/guardians, aiding adults, and establishments may face a Class III misdemeanor with a fine up to $500.
  • Council questions included clarification on the age of attendees at the July 4–5 events (Chief Boyce could not confirm exact numbers but noted many were young adults). Councilmember Silver noted the majority of Raleigh’s youth are law-abiding. The discussion was recessed at 12:36 PM, with the plan to resume at 1:00 PM after a lunch break.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken during the session. The council directed staff to continue gathering feedback on youth needs and to explore operational adjustments, enhanced partnerships, and improved communication.
  • The curfew discussion was paused and scheduled to continue after the lunch recess, with the possibility of being carried over to a later agenda if needed.

Meeting Transcript

Gabble us to order. Welcome back from our hiatus, and uh we have uh work session on youth engagement and of course the curfew. Uh Jonathan Lambert Melton will be 30 minutes late. If we can note that in the minutes, and then I will invite up Ken Um Tisler of Raleigh Parks, Taisha Mosley of Community Engagement, and Amanda Roll of the Police Department. Good morning. Um Taisha Mosley with the community engagement department. And yes, as the mayor stated, this is going to be a joint presentation. So you will see multiple faces here at the podium. I am just getting us started. Everyone will be available for questions on their specific programs as we wrap up. So today we will talk a little bit about context. We'll discuss briefly our current programs, we'll spend some time talking about the engagement efforts that took place this summer, and then next steps. So you'll hear that, and we're referring to individual that are individuals that are elementary school age. Uh over the age of 18. So you'll hear that throughout the presentation. Um, so in the youth area across all three departments, we have programs like Americor, Foster Grandparents, which is where we have individuals over the age of 55, volunteer in local elementary schools and daycare centers. Uh, the parks and recreation department does a wonderful job of identifying out of school time across all of those programs that you see on the screen, the Raleigh Police Department having Raleigh um youth summer camps, their leadership program, and mentorship opportunities. Uh it's an in its inception in 1983 was um young people working in community centers over the summer. And I just wanted to take a moment to point out the growth in the program since then. So within Summer Youth, they do additional programming with young people. We've had two mental health summits, job readiness training, which is open to anybody who even wants to apply to Raleigh Summer Youth, walking them through the application process there, several professional development opportunities, and some may not know that Raleigh Summer Youth also has a virtual pathway. So teenagers are able to work virtually with local businesses like York properties or nonprofits like the Garner Road Community Center. There they tackle real role challenges that the businesses identify, and a part of their job is proposing a solution at the end of their summer. We also have our digital impact program and both the connectors and the ambassadors work to bridge the digital divide. They pass out computers to low-income families, they host programs like advice about a device, where anyone can bring their cell phone, computer, iPad, and have the young people help them uh problem solve. And with that, I am going to turn it over to my colleague, Ken Histler in Raleigh Parks. Good morning, Ken Histor Assistant Director Raleigh Parks. Glad to be here with you today. Uh a nice little transition as we think about the collaboration that Tayshia just talked about is that Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program. For those of you who may not be aware, a lot of those kids come and work with us. So they're in our summer camps, they're working in our park operations. So it's a great example of how our two groups work together. Now, as typical in some of my slides, you have a lot of information here and a lot of data to look at. You can but what I want to do today is talk about a couple things that you're going to see in there. And one is this is data that we can pull out of our registration system. What it doesn't capture is all of that self-directed passive use of our greenway trails, our our outdoor uh courts, our our disk golf courses, our and those other opportunities that people have to recreate within our spaces. The other thing I do want to draw attention to is things like I want to put in there is contact hours and also um connections. So contact hours are how often do we have those teens in our programs, and then how frequently are they interacting in our programs? What I did want to draw attention to is a couple things, and as Tane talked about out-of-school time is really important to Raleigh Park. So when that school bell ends, what are the opportunities that we have for both our youth, our teens, and we'll talk a little bit about adults in a minute. So two of those is our out-of-school time includes our camps, our specialty camps, our traditional camp, and our after-school programs. What we want to do is make sure those are geographically represented in our after-school programs spread out across Raleigh. We also want to make sure they have an opportunity to get into different things. So when we get into our specialty camps, we're talking about things like entrepreneur camps. You guys may have remembered right before you broke for the summer. We had a bunch of teams that were in here learning about what government looks like. Do you want to be in a job with RTN? Or we even had them out at our greenhouse. So we're looking at those opportunities that the youth, the teens want to be able to learn more about skilled trades, entrepreneur camp. We had them over to IronWorks.

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