Yvette Mora (Far right) and Jessica Segura (far left) who are crisis responders with our Khadafy Washington Project, here pictured at the Survivors Speak event at the State Capital in Sacramento.
Traumatized victims should have access to the crucial healing work of violence prevention professionals like those on the staffs of our programs. That was the point made forcefully before the Legislature in Sacramento on April 5th by YA! Policy and Advocacy Director Gabriel Garcia and former YA! Intervention Director Kyndra Simmons. Gabriel and Kyndra were testifying in support of AB 1929, a bill to create a Community Violence Prevention and Recovery Program under the Medi-Cal system.
Last week, our Teens on Target (TNT) Youth Leaders and our Policy and Advocacy Director Gabriel Garcia met with State elected officials to discuss the need for violence prevention programs. Last year, Governor Newsom and the state legislature passed a budget that included a historic investment of over $200 million in the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program, but that money has yet to be distributed to communities like Oakland. During these meetings our youth shared their vision of living in a safer Oakland, and educated lawmakers on how the TNT violence prevention program has had a positive impact on their lives.
YA!’s KWP brings hope, help and healing to families of Oakland homicide victims.
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:
Guardian reporters spoke with Khadafy Washington Project Manager Jasmine Hardison about the crucial role victims compensation plays in helping survivors of violence heal and get their lives back together:
It is true that Oakland has endured more than five decades of gun and gang violence that has destroyed lives, futures, communities, neighborhoods and the city’s reputation.
