Jaymes Fitzpatrick
Violence Prevention Educator, Teens on Target
jfitzpatrick@youthalive.org
Jaymes Fitzpatrick embodies both Oakland and Teens on Target. Active in TNT for all four years of his school career, graduated from Castlemont high school in 2020 with a desire to work for the program that had been so pivotal in his life. “Being a youth leader in TNT made me want to be a Violence Prevention Educator for TNT when I graduated,” Jaymes said.
It wasn’t just the experiences, although going to San Diego and Washington, DC helped shape his image of what he wanted to do. “You go along in this cycle, in believing that there is no end to it,“ Jaymes said. “Working at Youth ALIVE! helped change thoughts on that…before TNT you feel like there is no end to the cycle but after TNT you see there can be, maybe not a stop but a reduction.”
It is the youth that keep him coming back to this work, the high school students he works with regularly and the middle school students the TNT leaders help educate. Seeing his first group of TNT leaders graduate from Castlemont was huge, a reminder of the power of this work.
