The Claremont Neighborhood Center offers summer camp, afterschool, and many other youth programs and activities for kids and young adults during the day. However, they believe they’ve overlooked introducing a full-fledged nighttime program.

The City Initiative recently expanded to keep 100 community center gyms open every Saturday night around the city, with 25 of them located in the Bronx.

The Claremont Neighborhood Center has an evening youth program, but it only runs for part of the summer. With the recent uptick in violence, administrators are looking to provide the resources to keep the space open every Saturday night.

“The time is now, because we need to do more to engage young people to keep them off the streets,” said one administrator.

NYPD stats showed a 53% jump in crimes between May 5 through today when compared to the same time frame in 2021.