[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ADOLESCENT COUNCIL WORKSHOPS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 1998

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the initiative of 
two young people who are residents of the Children's Village in Dobbs 
Ferry, New York who have courageously and creatively confronted a 
problem within their community.
  Tamari Valentine and Nicholas Mercado, ages 14 and 13, have 
established Adolescent Council Workshops--Sensitivity Workshops with a 
difference--in response to an ugly incident that had occurred at the 
Children's Village. Instead of confronting the situation, which arose 
after some derogatory epithets had been sprayed on some of the 
residential buildings of the Village, with a response in kind, these 
young men stood back and thought about the circumstances that had 
probably motivated this misguided act they believed had been committed 
by other young people.
  The solution Tamari and Nicholas came up with was to create a forum 
where residents from the Village and other young people from the 
surrounding community could come together and talk out whatever 
differences they felt they had between themselves. These meetings soon 
grew into workshops where the youth of Dobbs Ferry learned that 
stereotyping a person because of where he lives or his appearance is a 
barrier to appreciating individuals for who they are and what they have 
to offer.
  The Children's Village Adolescent Council has now conducted more than 
40 workshops, including programs for schools, senior citizens groups, 
corporations, conferences and local groups. As a recognition of their 
courage and their creativity, Tamari and Nicholas were recently 
selected by the Walt Disney Company to participate in the U.S. 
delegation to the 1998 Children's Summit in Paris. I am proud that they 
are young constituents of mine and I hope my colleagues in the Congress 
will join in recognizing their outstanding initiative that promises to 
build a better future.

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