Relationships Over Politics
All of our programs, whether for violence prevention, intervention or healing, rely on building positive, trusting relationships with the people we serve. It is why our staff is recruited from the community we serve, and it is why they are gifted entry into the lives of people in crisis, whey they are permitted to support them in their journey to healing. It is a thing people like YA! staffers Andrea Piazza or Marilyn Harris or Ernest Ynostrosa can do that the police would struggle to do if they were interested: to gain the trust that allows you to make a difference in someone’s life. KQED radio spoke with YA!’s Khadafy Washington Project Manager Jasmine Hardison recently about the surge in violence we have seen in the past two years. Naturally, Jasmine talked about relationships:
“I do think that we need to build better relationships, because a lot of times [the police department] doesn’t even have that interaction with the community until there’s a homicide. And then at that time, everyone is pretty much treated like a criminal.”
-YA!’s Jasmine Hardison
Listen to the program.