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New Orleans, LA – Deputy U.S. Marshals (DUSMs)
and Task Force Officers (TFOs) from the Eastern District of Louisiana in New
Orleans partnered with the Dryades YMCA for the city’s rejuvenated Midnight
Basketball program.
Midnight Basketball started in 1994 as a way to address the rising
involvement of youth as victims and perpetrators of crime. The program takes
teens and young adults from ages 17 to 24 off the streets from 9PM to 1AM,
the hours when crime and drug abuse are most likely to occur.
The program had been on hiatus for two years due to funding issues, but that
problem has since been rectified. The program is now being funded with a
$20,000 grant from the United Way.
Midnight Basketball is not just a program where the young men go to shoot
hoops on a Saturday night. In order to play, participants must first enroll
in the program and prior to the start of the night’s games they must also
attend a series of workshops that focus on issues like substance abuse,
financial planning and peer pressure.
EDLA DUSMs led some of the workshops, instructing the young men enrolled in
the program on topics such as job skills and perhaps most important lesson
of all, conflict resolution.
Additionally, DUSMs and TFOs have entered a team in the program that play
against the young men and YMCA staff members showing them firsthand the
concepts of teamwork, sportsmanship, cooperation and leadership for them to
model
For further information contact the EDLA U.S. Marshals Service at (504)
589-6079 Press 1 or visit
www.usmarshals.gov/district/la-e/index.html. For more information about
Midnight Basketball contact the Dryades YMCA at (504) 587-0903. To learn
more about the U.S. Marshals Service visit
www.usmarshals.gov.
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