Associate Director Torres talks empathy and the road ahead

Posted: August 8, 2023

A young life forever altered

Many of you will have heard about the 8-year-old shot on 580 in July. He was left paralyzed from the waist down. YA! Associate Director John Torres spoke to ABC7 about empathy, the road ahead, and the healing power of community support. Watch the video here.

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“If there were any reason I liked being on probation it would be meeting Jelani Avant from Youth ALIVE! She’s a Guardian Angel. Whenever there is something wrong or I need somebody, I call Jelani and she’s always there no matter what. She takes me to all my court dates. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be in school. I never told her but I look at her like a second mom. I’m very thankful to have met a person like her.”

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Jean, Caught in the Crossfire Client

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Ismael, TNT Youth Leader

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Smooth, TNT Youth Leader

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TNT Peer Educator, Age 16

“Why is it that we can walk to get any kind of gun, drug or alcohol that we want, but we have to take the bus to get school supplies?”

Art, 16-year-old TNT Peer Educator

“Speaking from personal experience, once you’ve been shot, it’s all in the aftercare, whether you really heal or retaliate. There’s a small window of opportunity where we (the recovering victim) can receive help.”

Caught in the Crossfire Intervention Specialist

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17-year-old Caught in the Crossfire Participant

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Sherman Spears, Co-Founder, Caught in the Crossfire

“You’re the first person who gave me hope that I could change – because you used to be like me, and you changed. I never had hope before.”

17-year-old Gang Member to a Peer Educator in a TNT workshop

“We work in neighborhoods that are called ‘murder central,’ ‘ground zero,’ or ‘the killing fields.’ We young people are the first line of defense in the prevention of violence. The hospitals and the police come in after violence has occurred. We’re coming in before.”

17-year-old Youth ALIVE! Peer Educator

“Youth ALIVE! didn’t just change my life. It saved my life. And now I want to do the same for my friends and my community.”

Latrae, 16-year-old TNT Peer Educator

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Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Professor, Harvard University School of Public Health

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Healing

We believe hurt people, hurt people and healed people, heal people, and true peace comes from love and healing. We are committed to helping our community find hope that renews and restores spiritual, physical, mental and emotional balance.

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."

-- Helen Keller

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"Courage is the most important virtue of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”"

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