With all of the focus on gun violence in Philadelphia and how it is affecting mostly young African-American males, one non-profit organization decided to ask those suffering the most for ideas about how to solve the problem.
The result is a 27-page gun violence report released Wednesday on the ManUpPHL website.
“We decided to gather some data about the causes, effects and solutions around gun violence,” said Solomon Jones, executive director and founder of ManUpPHL.
About 30 young men were surveyed and a group of them was interviewed. What they came up with was five recommendations:
Partner 10 incarcerated leaders with 10 agencies, to address gun violence inside out.
Create 300 jobs for at-risk youth.
Create a parallel educational experience for at-risk school students.
Create mental health sub-stations in at-risk communities.
Train and develop resource coordinators for at-risk youth to provide tangible alternative resources.
“They talked about education being a problem, mass incarceration, lack of job opportunities, and they talked about mental health,” said Jones, a journalist and activist.
He called on businesses, nonprofits, sports franchises and educational institutions to look at the study’s recommendations.
As part of the “Listening to the Streets” program, the young people were given a stipend of $240, meals and a guaranteed job offer, for helping the group’s leaders better understand the causes and effects of gun violence.
According to the latest statistics from the Philadelphia Police Department, the city is expected to exceed the record number of homicides in 2021.
ManUpPHL is a non-profit group that targets young people in Philadelphia most likely to be affected by gun violence, as victims or perpetrators. The group, founded by Jones, provides young people with mentoring, accountability, consistency and resources necessary to change their lives and better their communities.
Earlier this month, District Attorney Larry Krasner tried a similar approach when he had a number of Philadelphia students speak at his weekly gun violence news briefing, along with school and city officials.
At that event, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw discussed the Safe Corridors Program, in which the police help students to get to and from school safely. Police have increases their presence at 35 schools that are located in designated “hot spots.”
Cayla Waddington, a student at the Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School, who also spoke at the district attorney’s event earlier this month, said: “Sometimes people forget that teenagers know what’s going on around them.”