Community-minded cyclists have started organizations like New York's Recycle-a-Bicycle all over the US. Their stated goals usually include, keeping old but serviceable bicycles out of landfills, providing good bicycles that are affordable (many such organizations sell bikes to finance, among other things, giving bikes to the poor) and helping people learn bicycle-related skills.
That last goal often has another positive side effect: It engages young people. Kids who are misfits or outcasts become confident when they ride with cyclists who want to share their love of cycling, or when they learn how to fix or even build bikes.
Any time a kid is involved with an activity that takes dedication--whether it's cycling, chess, a school magazine, dance or something else--he or she is less likely to be involved with gangs, drugs or other things that can adversely affect their lives and futures.
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| From Remember Us Urban Scouts' Facebook page |
Now it seems that organizations that serve young people are seeing the value of cycling. One such organization is Remember Us Urban Scouts of Columbus, Ohio. It has partnered with the city's Parks and Recreation Department to create a mobile bike shop that will be sent into low-income communities.
"One thing that impacts people that live in low-income areas is mobility," obsereves Ayriq Sims. The RUUS Program Director explained that in such communities, people lack transportation because they family may not have a car, the kid doesn't have a bike and nobody in the family can afford bus fare.
The result is that kids can't, for example, get to the activities that build social skills and positive memories for young people. They thus feel alienated and are easy to recruit into gangs, or are otherwise vulnerable to getting sucked into get involved in the worst the streets have to offer. If it doesn't lead to jail or death, Sims says, it can lead to "lifelong trauma."
So, Remember Us Urban Scouts is extending work that urban bicycle recycling programs and bike clubs are already doing: Using a bicycle to break a cycle--of youth violence.
