Safe Creative Community Space Celebrates Urban Life

NORFOLK
A developing community space is taking shape on Church Street, a block down from the historic Attucks Theatre. The site launched on September 9 as the Safe Creative Community Space (SCCS), designated as a safe, welcoming neighborhood space for art, entertainment and learning in a beautiful, bountiful garden.

The development is on a city-owned vacant lot that is adjacent to the Vivian C. Mason Teen Center for Arts and Technology Center, 700 E. Olney Road, the home of Teens with a Purpose (TWP) – The Youth Movement. Development of the site began in early summer of 2017.

The SCCS will continue to grow as an environment for creation, application of the visual and performing arts and community gardening with activities that are educational, fun and artistically planned for the remainder of the year.

City Councilwoman Andria McClellan and Wynter Benda, Deputy City Manager of the City of Norfolk, alongside Teens With A Purpose, The Mission Continues, Norfolk Botanical Gardens, Virginia Co-operative Extension and community members were in hand recently to usher in this new space and ongoing partnership between the city of Norfolk and TWP, and support from a number of groups and organizations.

Community persons are encouraged to contribute to the garden, to gather and add their voice and ideas to important subjects like juvenile justice reform and more. A Community Visioning Session was held at the SCCS and Teens With a Purpose Open House on Monday, September 18.

Official Ribbon Cutting of the Safe Creative Community Space:
Donovan Pollock, Hampton Roads Youth Poet Laureate, Deirdre Love, executive director TWP, Norfolk City Councilwoman Andria McCLellan, Renee Foster, Alisha Burke and others.