Instead of flipping burgers or watching over wading pools this summer, 153 teens are joining the Toronto Police Service.

The common thread that unites the group of 15- to 18-year-olds is each teen comes from areas deemed “priority neighbourhoods.” The city considers these areas vulnerable based on 15 factors, including a disproportionate number of health issues, higher poverty rates, lower job prospects and voter turnout.

When 15-year-old Brian Brempong from Rexdale found out his first job would be with the Toronto police's Youth in Policing Initiative (YIPI), he and his family celebrated in the car. They were on their way home from his sister's graduation ceremony.

“The police people called me and (said) I got the job, and they were all cheering and everything,” Brian said of his family’s reaction. “Two good things happened in one day.”

Placements range from working at the law courts or traffic services to the police museum or gift shop. There are spots in the marine unit, records management and homicide, among other divisions.

More than 1,200 teens applied to the 2016 summer YIPI program and 153 of them were chosen, according to Toronto Police Services board chair Andy Pringle. Each teen is paid $11 an hour for eight weeks with wages funded by the provincial Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

By employing teens from priority neighbourhoods, the police hope to enhance their links among the 31 most marginalized communities. And for many of the youth, the YIPI opportunity means more than a paycheque and a solid addition to their résumé — although all the teens the Star spoke to agree those things are bonuses.

“I hope to gain a good relationship or connection with the police and be able to kind of see them as more human,” said Myla Fernandez, a 17-year-old from Scarborough.

Fernandez said she hasn’t had any personal run-ins with the police that would cause her to worry, nor had any of the other teens the Star spoke to.

No one from Fernandez’s family has served on the force and her brief interactions with a police officer happened at her high school, St. John Paul II Catholic Secondary School, where police helped organize charity fundraisers, she said.

Still, she said she’d like “to be more comfortable in speaking with them if I ever needed help, because it is kind of intimidating to speak to a police officer.”

Zainab Hanif, who’s also 17 and from Scarborough, echoed the sentiment about wanting to feel safe around the men and women in blue.

“I think that’s what attracted me to the program is that I don’t have any experience with anyone that I know personally being a police officer. So I think that’s really what pushed me to do this.

“I’m exploring options and I thought this would be a completely new experience,” she said.

The new YIPI recruits joined the force just a day after Black Lives Matter activists asked Pride Toronto to https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/04/police-chief-waiting-on-pride-organizers-to-explain-parade-ban.html ban police floats END and booths from future parades. Maryan Sheikh-Ali, a 17-year-old from the Jane-Finch neighbourhood, said she understood where the protesters were coming from.

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“I understand why they have tensions with the police. But at the same time, I think instead of fighting against it, we need to work to build stronger relationships with them,” she said.

Programs like YIPI will help young people feel more comfortable dealing with police in the future, Maryan said, hopefully reducing conflicts with marginalized groups.

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