Chelsea police officers have been spending afternoons in middle school gyms, joining open gyms and volleyball games with students at the Clark Avenue Middle School and the Williams Middle School, the Police Department said in a post this week.
The department said the visits are paid for through the Shannon Community Safety Initiative, the state grant program commonly called the Shannon Grant. With that funding, the department said, officers take part in school-based open gyms, sports and recreational activities with local young people.
What the department says the program is for
“These opportunities are about more than sports,” the department wrote. “They’re about building trust, strengthening relationships, and creating positive connections between our officers and the young people we serve.”
The post describes a recent afternoon of open gym, volleyball and teamwork at the two middle schools. The department said the goal is to give students safe, supportive places to spend time and adults to look up to, and in that way to steer young people away from risky behavior and from activities that could put their futures at risk.
The department posted photos of officers and students on the court. It did not name the officers who took part.
What the post does not say
- How much Shannon Grant money Chelsea receives this year, or how much of it pays for the open gyms.
- How often the open gyms are held, on which days, and whether students need to sign up.
- Whether the program also runs at other Chelsea schools.
Earlier this month the department highlighted a school resource officer at the Clark Avenue school who bought his students a pizza party, another example of the department’s work inside the schools.