Youth of Coventry to Hold Elections, Monthly Meetings

The Youth of Coventry is starting fresh.

The group was founded June 6 but officially formed in the aftermath of the , when 16 teens were arrested and many others crowded the streets. It is comprised of 12- to 25-year-olds who want to be able to enjoy Coventry and other areas of Cleveland Heights and University Heights peacefully.

On June 31, the Youth of Coventry, which  Cleveland Heights City Council’s  for minors in the Coventry and Cedar Lee business districts, disbanded.

“There wasn’t a structure, and we had all these different ideas. We just needed a way to funnel them,” said 22-year-old John Nelson.

He and others met with Cleveland Heights Councilwoman Bonita Caplan, and formed a constitution with bylaws, new positions, goals and set other guidelines for the group.

The purpose is “to give the youth a voice on social issues in our community,” said Nelson, one of the founders of the group. 

And the group will hold elections Aug. 28 for chairman, vice chairman, treasurer and secretary. 

There is also a consistent schedule for youth to share their ideas. The Youth of Coventry will have a meeting on the first Sunday of each month at Lee Road Library, and the first is at 1 p.m. Sept. 4.

Nelson said that he expects there will be 14 or 15 core members in the group, but that the interest is growing. As of today, the Youth of Coventry had 53 “likes” on its Facebook page.

In order to be a member, you can't have more than two D's on your report card, and you must obey Cleveland Heights and University Heights laws. 

The group has already been working with City Council, monitoring Facebook and Twitter pages to investigate  where large groups of people gather in one place, before it happens.

He said they’ll look for messages and tweets about Cedar Lee, , the Regal movie theater in , Beachwood Mall, and of course, Coventry.

“We’ve been working really hard with social media to make sure that we are not just policing it, but really getting information about it so that community does not react in a negative way,” he said. “The hot spots that we know for kids, we would search for them on social media sites … and we find out what’s going on. And if we see something wrong, we report it (to the police). We don’t want to disturb anybody, we just want to make sure they’re safe.”

But Nelson said the group does much more than just scan social media sites.

Long before the city decided to  for University Heights residents, who are in the same school district but don’t get the rates that Cleveland Heights residents do, Nelson said several kids had suggested that.   

“We’re just looking to have those ideas that the youth are thinking about be presented in a way that council can understand and the community can understand and get behind,” he said. "Even if (youth) don’t want to be involved, we’ll bring their ideas (to council) for them."

Editor's Note: The elections were originally scheduled for Aug. 14, but Nelson said they were moved to Aug. 28 because several people were unavailable on Aug. 14.