We just moved into our new space a month ago and have been approached by a police officer about running a program in our shop.&nbsp; From his explanation this is what I understand of the program:<br><br>He is a &quot;community&quot; police officer (beat cop) who walks the streets and talks with members of the community on a daily basis.&nbsp; When he encounters youth that need something to do and may need a bike he would tell them to come to us.&nbsp; We would outfit the kids with a bike and work with them to have a better mechanical awareness.&nbsp; There would be no charge for these services.&nbsp; Job Corp has offered 20-30 hours per week of community service &quot;man hours&quot; in the shop.
<br><br>He has met with some Weed And Seed folks who tentatively approved $3,500 to finance the program next year.&nbsp; The money would be used to buy a complete tool kit from a LBS as well as &quot;parts&quot;.&nbsp; The bicycles themselves would be obtained via donations and the police impound although I believe the majority of those are adult bikes.&nbsp; He has asked us how much money he needs to set aside in the grant for &quot;us&quot; and for &quot;what&quot;.&nbsp; I flat out said I have no idea....
<br><br>We&#39;ve never done anything like this before and neither has he so it&#39;s a little bit of the blind leading the blind...Here are some of my concerns, hoping you guys could shed some light on the situation for us:
<br><br>1.&nbsp; We were not planning to open the shop for more than a couple nights a week and 5-10 hours on weekends. He would like the program to be &quot;ongoing&quot; throughout the week. Any time the shop is open kids could stop in as opposed to a designated &quot;kid&#39;s bike day&quot; or something.
<br>2.&nbsp; The core members of our group all have day jobs and are not available to supervise the shop until at the very earliest 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, perfect for after school but in the summertime, problematic.<br>
3.&nbsp; Though Job Corp has offered help, it would be untrained help.&nbsp; We would be required to train the individuals to basically become bike mechanics if they were to be able to work independently.&nbsp; There is a serious lack of time for this in terms of us teaching.
<br>4.&nbsp; This would also require giving key access to the shop to people that we have no prior experience in dealing with.&nbsp; Yes, I am inclined to trust a police officer but he will not be physically in the building for much of the time.
<br>5.&nbsp; Even if we were to swing all these things at once, past experience has taught me that children require a significant amount of attention and supervision.&nbsp; My concern is we will often be operating the shop with only 1 or 2 volunteers and if 2 kids come in, no one else will be able to get any assistance.
<br>6.&nbsp; How do we determine the costs of this program?&nbsp; Once the $3,500 grant is used up there will be no more money to operate the program other than what we have saved from regular shop customers.<br>7.&nbsp; How do we ask for money in the grant to assist with rent, electric, purchase of new tools etc?&nbsp; The program would require substantially more volunteer hours and the shop being open much longer hours that we had planned at this time.
<br><br>I won&#39;t ask any more of you guys though I could go on and on.&nbsp; We have to sit down with him and work out the details so if anyone has suggestions, comments or comparisons to programs you have run or witnessed please share them with us and the rest of the bike collective community!
<br><br>Brian<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Urban Bike Project of Wilmington<br>1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the building)<br>Wilmington, DE 19801<br><br>Phone - 302-654-5304<br>Visit online at 
<a href="http://urbanbikeproject.org">http://urbanbikeproject.org</a>