Area B-3 police officers joined local teenagers on August 10 at the ABCD Mattapan Family Service Center to celebrate the completion of a series of dialogues between Mattapan’s youth and local police. The weekly forums have been going on since July.

Managed by the YWCA, the Youth/Police Dialogues are intended to promote understanding in the sometimes tense relationship between youth in communities of color and police. Before the YWCA adopted the program, it was a part of an Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts initiative dubbed “City-Wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic and Racial Diversity.” Since 2007, the YWCA has hosted similar programs around the city, most recently focusing its efforts in Dorchester and Roxbury in as well as Mattapan.

“I think that the police are a symbolic oppressor in the minds of some of young people. These conversations help to reveal the human face of police,” said Efrain Arias, the program’s director.

The discussion group consists of 22 teenagers from the ABCD Summerworks program and 12 police officers from the B-3 police station. Their discussions included such topics as stereotypes about the police, understanding of youth culture and community engagement. The Aug. 10 celebration doubled as the fourth and final session, in which the group discussed legal rights during police encounters. Following the discussion, all participants received certificates for completing the program.

“We hope that, with these discussions, the youth and police understand each other better,” said Arias. “The police perform a public service that we need, and we often need to change the way we perceive them. But we also find that the police may need to make some changes.”

According to Arias, the decision to bring such a forum to Mattapan was prompted by last September’s quadruple homicide on Woolson Street, where three adults and a toddler were murdered. Arias approached ABCD because of the cache of readily available teenagers under the Summerworks program.

“When that kind of tragedy happens, people need to connect,” said Sylvia Ferrel-Jones, president and CEO of the YWCA Boston. “After the Woolson Street incident, we found that teens are often the most knowledgeable about goings-on in the community, so interaction with the police helps public safety.”

In addition to improving ties between youth and police, the YWCA hopes to measure the influence of the programs through surveys of the participants. The YWCA then tracks changes in opinion and perceptions to determine whether or not the dialogues are having an impact.

“I think the program was really well organized. I was surprised at the amount of personal stories and thoughts that were shared,” said Officer Tamara Espinda, a B-3 police officer who participated. “I think that the teens got a chance to really see police as people, as opposed to some kind of faceless authority figure.”

“I feel much more comfortable around police,” said 16-year-old Derick Long. “I’ve learned that a lot of the stereotypes about police that I believed just are not true.”