Special thanks to Fox2 News for highlighting the impact of this program. Watch their coverage to see how Critical Conversations is creating positive change and inspiring connection. 

Check out the video now and see how this initiative is helping to shape the future:

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SANTA BARBARA – Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon was in Washington, D.C., this month to take her place as a founding member of the National Police Activities/Athletic League’s Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council.

“Chief Gordon’s dedication to making a positive difference in the lives of the young people she serves makes her a valuable member of the council,” said National PAL CEO Chris Hill, who built a PAL chapter in New Jersey while serving as a police sergeant.

Chief Gordon is the only California official selected for the council, which includes the chief of the Washington D.C. Police Department, the police commissioner of Philadelphia, and the director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council, and to support National PAL’s mission of empowering youth through positive relationships with law enforcement,” said Gordon.

“As someone who benefited from strong mentors growing up, I know firsthand how powerful programs like PAL can be in helping young people see their potential. When we invest in our young people, we invest in the future of our communities,” she said.

“We are going to lean on the Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council for guidance as National PAL evolves and grows to provide new assets and support to our local chapters,” said Kenneth Ragland, president of organization’s corporate board of directors. Ragland is a retired police sergeant and founder of the PAL chapter in Henrico County, Virginia.

Creating the Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council is part of a rejuvenation and redirection of the national organization, which has been serving local chapters since the 1940s. There are now more than 300 PAL chapters.

“The mentoring, support, and example that police officers provide to the youth who enter these programs is probably as important as the sports and activities,” Hill said. “Everyone likes to win a contest, but PAL chapters can help young people find the right path to a good future – to win in life.”

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CONNECTICUT – The chief of the Waterbury Police Department has been chosen to serve as chairman of a new council formed by the National Police Activities/Athletic League.

The announcement was made Monday in a news release where officials said Chief Fernando Spagnolo was in Washington D.C. earlier this month to take his place as the founding chairman of the PAL’s newly formed Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council.

“Chief Spagnolo’s dedication to making a positive difference in the lives of the young people he serves makes him a valuable member of the council,” National PAL CEO Chris Hill, who built a PAL chapter in New Jersey while serving as a police sergeant, said in a statement.

According to officials, Spagnolo is the only Connecticut official selected for the council, which also includes the chief of the Washington D.C. and Santa Barbara police departments, the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia, and the Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

“We are going to lean on the Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council for guidance as National PAL evolves and grows to provide new assets and support to our local chapters,” Kenneth Ragland, president of the organization’s corporate board of directors, said in the statement. Ragland is also a retired police sergeant and founder of the PAL chapter in Henrico County, Virginia.

“It is an honor to be named chairman of the National PAL Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council,” Spagnolo said in the news release. “It is also an opportunity. There is so much we can learn from one another.

“Working with chiefs and sheriffs from around the country, we will share successful models for building relationships with youth and implementing programs to support them,” Spagnolo added.

“Together as a council we can help National PAL share those lessons with law enforcement supporting youth around the world.”

According to PAL officials, creating the Chiefs’ and Sheriffs’ Council is part of a “rejuvenation and redirection of the national organization,” which has been serving local chapters since the 1940s. There are now more than 300 PAL chapters.

“The mentoring, support and example that police officers provide to the youth who enter these programs is probably as important as the sports and activities,” Hill said. “Everyone likes to win a contest, but PAL chapters can help young people find the right path to a good future — to win in life.”

Story by Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant

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Plenty of boxing legends had rough upbringings. But at the Sheriff’s Activities League, boxing, and other sports, is how they try to save kids from similar childhoods.

“Our main goal is to have a safe place for these kids to be at,” said Deputy Iris Mendez. “I would rather them be here boxing and learning a new sport, getting in shape rather than them being exposed to gangs and drugs out in the streets.”

It’s a place for kids to stay safe, and even make friends. Kids like 8-year-old Alexis Cruz, nicknamed “Mouse” by his peers.‘I’m doing what wasn’t done for me’: Bakersfield woman shows resilience, strength after traumatic experiences of her youth

17’s Justin White asked: Why do they call him “Mouse,” you may ask?

“Because I’m little,” said Cruz.

It’s at SAL where Cruz and many others can learn to box or cheer, the other sport they offer, or take part in any of the other numerous programs they offer. Programs the kids otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

But if it’s boxing they choose, they’ll learn the art from a coach who’s been teaching it for 20-plus years, Pete Baker. A man who learned how to work the speed bag from Colion Chaney, who went toe-to-toe with the late, great Joe Louis.

“It teaches kids to live with a little bit of pain,” said Baker. “Teaches them a lot of discipline, some skills, teaches them not to give up, teaches them that there’s a pay-off for hard work. Plus it’s just a lot of fun, builds their confidence.”

“I like how competitive it is,” said 13-year-old Omar Jasso. “I like how you can hit back people… they get to learn discipline, they control their anger more.”

With support of their barbecue on Wednesday, right outside the 17 News studios on Compassion Corner, these kids will have the resources they need to fight another day.

“They enjoy coming here, it’s not only taught them a new sport but it’s also taught them about teamwork,” said Deputy Mendez. “Me and the coach try to help them as much as we can by coaching and mentoring them.”Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage

“I could tell dozens and dozens and scores of stories of kids whose lives have been transformed,” said Baker. “My best girl boxer I’ve ever had just last year graduated Cal State with a degree in psychology, and she married the best boy boxer I’ve ever had. He’s now in the Navy, just deployed into the Pacific. There’s been tons and tons of success stories, we’ve rescued a lot of kids.”

SAL’s barbecue is Wednesday, April 2, starting at 11 a.m. and running until 2 p.m. The lunch includes a tri-tip sandwich, chips and a drink for $15. You can also donate online here.

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From 2021 to 2023, the number of reports of online child enticement received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children rose more than 300%.

GETTY IMAGES

We marked Safer Internet Day earlier this month, a worldwide campaign to make cyberspace a safer and more responsible place and raise awareness of the threats for young people online to be lured into dangerous, criminal and potentially life-threatening activities. It’s a timely topic here — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares recently hosted a discussion about the need to protect children from online threats.

“There’s a lot of danger out there, but probably the most danger for our kids is online,” Miyares was quoted as saying. “Your child is not going to meet a child predator in the neighborhood, a parking lot or playground. They’re going to meet him online.”

Today, bad guys lurk in the amorphous world of cyberspace, which for so many kids has displaced the safer meeting spaces — the basketball courts and ballfields, the youth clubs and fast-food joints — that I recall from my youth.

Today’s predators use readily available information and images, like shared milestones or photos, to target and exploit youth. They conduct phishing expeditions on popular social media platforms. Armed with even a little information about someone, predators worm their way into young lives, those who by their nature are innocent, vulnerable and unsuspecting, especially when the predator is posing as a fellow child or teen.

There are cases where kids were lured to meet and then were kidnapped, a leading method for pulling youth into the web of human trafficking. Older boys and girls may think they are invincible, but in fact most abductions involve teenage victims. Other crimes involve sextortion, where youth are persuaded to provide graphic images of themselves and are then extorted by the predator. Soliciting young people to buy drugs, forcing kids to become mules in the localized drug trade, engaging them in theft schemes — all of these occur in cyberspace’s dark corners.

What’s more, as our attorney general noted, constantly developing AI technology provides predators with the dangerous capability to use photos unwittingly shared by children to create fake, disturbing, exploitative images.

The numbers stagger the mind. From 2021 to 2023, the number of reports of online child enticement received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children rose more than 300%, from 44,155 to 186,819. And they continue to rise. Last year alone, just through early October, the center had received more than 456,000 reports.

Cyber platforms where predators may lurk are everywhere around us, and new sites that appeal to young audiences emerge every day. As has always been true with kids, an activity that becomes popular with others is hard to resist, and not all these platforms have robust protections or safeguards to screen potential predators. Even Smart TVs, gaming consoles and virtual assistant devices connect young people to cyberspace. Esports players often don’t know who they’re competing against and may unintentionally share personal information, opening a virtual window for a predator to climb through.

Growing up in Philadelphia, I never imagined something called cyberspace, let alone how a person whose face I couldn’t see and whose voice I couldn’t hear could hurt me. In my day, the bad guys were known players, and we were all too familiar with the ways they would bully, threaten or do other bad things. 

I had the great fortune to participate in our local Police Athletic League (PAL) where I played sports, took field trips to places I would never have otherwise seen, and received wise counsel and support from adult mentors and coaches, including police officers who volunteered their time.

Just as I had a safe place growing up, and people to steer me away from the bad guys, I want today’s kids to know the same safety, protection and guidance in the place where they most often hang out — cyberspace.

As president of the Board of National Police Athletic and Activities Leagues (National PAL), with 200 chapters nationwide serving 2 million youth, I’m leading an effort to raise awareness about how young people can protect themselves from online danger. One way we’re doing that is through our collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Know2Protect, a comprehensive cyber safety campaign.

Discussing this topic with young people can be challenging. Yet the ubiquity of cyber activity provides opportunities throughout any given day to remind them that not everyone they meet online has good intentions, and that it’s not safe to share information or images with people they don’t know and trust. 

If you’re a child’s parent, guardian, caregiver, mentor, relative, teacher or friend, please take a moment to discuss online safety with them. It’s our duty to protect them from what lurks in the internet’s dark shadows. 

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The organization is now promoting the significance of youth mental health.

Dr. Galen Duncan is leading that effort, and he joined Jewell Hillery on Sunday’s WGN Weekend Morning News to discuss.

“National PAL is the largest organization that forward-faces young people and police,” Duncan says. “Basically, we provide activities, opportunities, and mindset opportunities for youth to grow.

“… We have 300 PALs worldwide that are providing this type of information and resources to young people.”

Duncan played college basketball at Lake Superior State University in Upper Michigan, graduating with multiple bachelor’s degrees before going on to earn his master’s and PhD. Prior to all of that, he grew up as a “PAL kid” in Detroit, which helped him develop a positive relationship with law enforcement at a young age.

“As a young person growing up in Detroit, oftentimes the police weren’t the people that you would go to. But that was very different for me and my friends,” Duncan says. “We had an opportunity to grow up in a community where police were our mentors, were good to us. They were our coaches, and they taught us that the narrative that police officers aren’t necessarily for young people is a false narrative.

“There’s a few bad apples that make the good bunch look not as good. But the great ones are great, and they have been great to me all my life.”

See the attached video for the full interview.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) – Twenty-five GEO Next Generation students are heading to New Orleans to experience Super Bowl-related events and leadership programs. 

The National Association of Police Athletic Leagues and the BRidge Agency chapter are partnering to give the students a rare experience. They will tour Xavier University, attend a School Leadership Symposium, and volunteer at the Player Networking Event.

Organizers say they hope the trip inspires the future of the participants.

“We’re giving back so that they can become successful and then they can give back and just keep it going. Keep paying it forward,” said Christopher Hill, CEO of National PAL.

They’ll return after two days of events and mentorship.

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