Community Town Hall Aims To Stop Youth Violence: 'Our Kids Are Dying'
DENVER (CBS4)– The recent shooting death of a teenager at an Aurora mall was on the minds of many kids and community activists at a town hall Saturday night. The meeting addressed youth violence.
The town hall, which took place at Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center, was planned before the shooting of 17-year-old Nathan Poindexter. Several dozen people attended the meeting, despite poor weather conditions.
The whole idea of the town hall, hosted by success strategist Jonathan McMillan, was to gather various community organizations that address youth violence, and let the kids and teens who are affected give their perspective.
"So many times, we as the adults sit around and think we know the best answers and solutions and what people should do, where we should focus, but we don't actually listen to the ones who are directly and indirectly involved," McMillan said.
The town hall started with introductions from representatives from each organization. After that, the crowd broke up into small discussion groups, led by a youth facilitator.
"We have to change the narrative as youth. We have to change the narrative as adults because the adults, they're the ones the youth are looking up to," said Jamar Holmes, one of five youth facilitators.
Community activists tell CBS4 the rate of youth violence in Denver and Aurora this year is beyond concerning.
"Our kids are dying," said McMIllan. "Our kids are involved in levels of violence we haven't seen in Denver in probably 20-25 years."
The latest example is the shooting death of Poindexter at the JCPenney within Town Center at Aurora. The 17-year-old was a mentee of organizer, Jonathan McMillan.
"We try to support these boys as much as possible, and when we lose one it just becomes really frustrating to watch kids that you love and support lose their lives, man," McMillan said.
Solutions from the small discussions ranged from the obvious, such as better coordinating community resources, to poignant suggestions, such as breaking down the barriers between adults and kids. As the kids pointed out, things won't change until the adults and their outreach do too.
"When they know and see that they have a community and a world that supports them and don't want them to fail, they're going to fall back on somebody that's going to push them back up," said 16-year-old Josiah Meeks.
A recent study released by Denver Public Health found, on average, 700 people under the age of 25 are directly impacted by gun violence. It also found gun violence disproportionately affects young Latino and black populations.
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