‘Don’t Miss A Beat’: Summer program works to keep underserved youth off the streets

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville has seen a recent uptick in gun violence plaguing youth, which typically gets worse during the summer when students are out of school.

A summer program in Woodstock is teaching 65 students about the rhythm of life. While life is unpredictable, these kids don’t miss a beat.

The program, which started in Jacksonville 15 years ago, exposes Jacksonville’s underserved youth to the arts.

“We sing, dance and act,” CJ Williams, one of the students, said.

But the confidence built by the program’s leaders is no act at all.

“It shows how far you can go. Like how much you can do that you didn’t really know you could do. So it unlocks a lot of stuff,” Jaala Rutherford, another student, said.

The unlocked potential is what the program is all about and within weeks, they’re surrounded by family, which is important when many don’t always have one.

“Where they might not have the family structure of these other students, we have to become that village and that family structure to them,” Ulysses Owens Jr., the program’s co-founder, said.

Owens, a Jacksonville native, graduated from Juilliard with hopes of touring the world as a jazz musician. Instead, he traveled back to his roots to make a difference in his hometown.

Just last year, a teenager was gunned down feet away from the program’s facility in Woodstock. The victim was a member of Don’t Miss A Beat.

“Darkness is there, but you have to cling to the light. So Don’t Miss A Beat, we are the light in the midst of darkness.”

According to the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida, in 2020 school programs served about 15,000 Duval students. There are still 100,000 that don’t have somewhere to go after school or during the summer.

That’s where programs like Don’t Miss A Beat step in.

Organizers are currently working to coordinate the second annual Jazz Festival at Woodstock Park, which is free to community members.

National and international artists will headline the show on July 23, starting at 11 a.m.

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