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  • YA!'s Kyndra Simmons Talks Police Violence with Rep. Barbara Lee and BLM's Alicia Garza

    Posted August 5, 2020

    Kyndra on Facebook Live -

    Intervention Director Kyndra Simmons joined Rep. Barbara Lee and Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza on FB Live on June 5, 2020 to discuss police brutality: Watch the entire conversation here.

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  • From Pain and Loss Came a Gift of Love

    Posted August 3, 2020

    In KWP, Khadafy’s Inspiration Lives On -

    This August 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Khadafy Washington, in whose memory our program to help families of homicide victims, the Khadafy Washington Project, is named. Khadafy was shot and killed on the campus of McClymond’s High School in West Oakland, just a few short weeks after he had graduated. It was a devastating loss. But Khadafy’s memory lives on in the great kindness he inspired. In the months and then the years after Khadafy’s death, his mom, Marilyn Washington Harris, dedicated her life to serving families who found themselves in the same situation she was in on that awful August day in 2000: alone, confused, shocked, frightened, with no idea where to turn and no one to help her. Marilyn would never let that happen to another grieving mother or family in Oakland. She created the Khadafy Washignton Foundation for Non-Violence and, at Youth ALIVE!, founded the Khadafy Washignton Project, our program that meets families in the immediate aftermath of a homicide to help them through their darkness and pain, to help them obtain victim compensation, plan funerals, and take care of themselves and their loved ones. Twenty years later, Marilyn is still tirelessly there for grieving families in Oakland, embracing them, giving them hope.

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  • A New Vision for Public Safety

    Posted July 27, 2020

    Community Violence Prevention

    In the Guardian, Youth ALIVE! Executive Director Anne Marks, Intervention

    Director Kyndra Simmons, Man Up! Inc founder AT Mitchell, and Cure Violence CEO Gary Slutkin make the very strong case that effective community violence prevention and intervention have been happening across the country for years; results show that the community can itself can do much to reduce the need for and presence of law enforcement in our neighborhoods. Read their piece here - ‘Time for a New Vision’: violence is a public health issue that requires community driven solutions.

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  • TNT Youth Leader's Academic Turnaround Rewarded

    Posted July 27, 2020

    Jasin gets a car!

    Jasin on an educational visit to San Quentin with the OK Program and Youth ALIVE!’s TNT.

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  • More States and Cities Funding Community Intervention

    Posted June 23, 2020

    Sherman Spears’ Inspiration -

    Sherman Spears in 2013

    A July 2019 article in The Trace opens with an excellent summary of how Oakland’s (and Youth ALIVE!’s) Sherman Spears was inspired to create our Caught in the Crossfire hospital-based violence intervention program, which today is seen as one of the most effective approaches, not only to preventing violence, but to helping victims begin to heal their trauma. Read about Caught in the Crossfire here. Read the entire article in The Trace about what happens when prevention funding and support truly get to the people who need them: What Gun Violence Prevention Looks Like When it Focuses on the Communities Hurt Most.

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  • TNT Youth Leaders on Coping with Racism

    Posted June 8, 2020

    TNT on KALW -

    Graduating Teens On Target (TNT) youth leaders from East Oakland, Gregory Hampton (Castlemont Hight) and Seven Curley (Fremont High), were guests on KALW’s Your Talk Radio, where they discussed the impact of violence against people of color on and the lack of justice for victims of racist violence. Listen to their comments here.

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  • The Language of the Unheard

    Posted June 3, 2020

    Youth ALIVE! Supports Protests -

    “A riot is the language of the unheard.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

    Youth ALIVE! wholeheartedly supports the protests and the demands for justice and police accountability. An unacceptable status quo, where over a thousand Americans – and thousands more worldwide – are killed by police every year, has made these protests necessary. Youth ALIVE!’s vision of communities free from violence is incompatible with a justice system that allows police to kill unarmed people of color without being held accountable.

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  • Take Action for Violence Prevention

    Posted June 1, 2020

    We need your help to preserve critical funding in the State budget for violence prevention and intervention programs.

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  • TNT Youth Leaders on Violence Prevention During the Pandemic

    Posted May 29, 2020

    TNT Voices & Insights -

    TNT youth leaders from Castlemont and Fremont high schools were asked by Youth Today to give their thoughts on life during the pandemic and especially on violence an violence prevention in this difficult time. As always, they had lots of good, thoughtful things to say. Read the article here.

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  • Hospital-Based Violence Intervention in The Guardian

    Posted May 4, 2020

    Early Intervention Brings Victims Hope -

    An article in The Guardian features illuminating interviews with two former victims of gun violence who were clients of Youth ALIVE!’s Caught in the Crossfire (CiC) hospital-based violence intervention program (HVIPs). CiC was the nation’s first program to recognize the benefit to young victims of having someone from their community, who understands the effects of deep trauma, to support them on their very difficult path to healing. Now staff from HVIPs, as they are known, step into victims’ lives in dozens of cities across America (for info, see the website of The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, aka The HAVI). More and more the nation sees gun violence as a public health issue that can be solved through a public health approach, and through healing. Caheri Gutierrez (former YA! Teens On Target violence prevention educator) and Jeremy Posey tell their emotional, painful, triumphant stories of violence and a fight to get back to life. YA Intervention Director Kyndra Simmons is also interviewed. Kyndra had this to say:

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