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.
YA! Violence Interrupter Antoine Towers addresses rally
As Oakland’s surge in gun violence continues, an informative February article in the San Francisco Chronicle looks at its possible causes, and ways to address it, from multiple perspectives, including law enforcement and community-based prevention programs like ours. Reporters spoke to several Youth ALIVE! staff, including hospital-based Intervention Specialist Andrea Piazza and Executive Director Anne Marks, and the article features a picture of Violence Interrupter Antoine Towers addressing a rally.
As 2021 came to a close and the media sought to summarize a year of increased violence in Oakland and beyond, reporters sought out Youth ALIVE! staff to help them put things in context, and especially to draw a picture of how violence has affected people, families and the community. In Oakland North, in The Oaklandside and on KCBS Radio In Depth, YA! violence interrupters Antoine Towers, intervention specialists Carlos Jackson and Andrea Piazza, crisis responder Marilyn Harris, who works with families of homicide victims, violence prevention educator Sasha Long from our Teens on Target program and agency and program leaders, including Intervention Director Paris Davis and Executive Director Anne Marks, were all called on to comment. Read and listen to their insights in the links below.
We wish all a wonderful holiday season, but we know that, for many people, it’s not the most wonderful time of the year. Sixty-four percent of people living with mental illness (including trauma/PTSD) report that holidays make their conditions worse. And so, the therapists on Youth ALIVE!’s Counseling Services staff created this helpful list of local and national hotlines, text lines, web sites and other resources that may be helpful for those who are experiencing trauma, or anyone struggling during the season. They include not only crisis lines, but also links to articles to help deal with stress and/or grief over the holidays.
This San Francisco Chronicle piece by reporter Susie Neilson includes vast amounts of historic and national data on gun violence as well as commentary from our ED, Anne Marks, Brian Malte of the Hope & Heal Fund and Rev. Damita Davis-Howard, coordinator of Oakland Ceasefire. Here’s some of what Anne had to say:
Ghost guns are untraceable firearms without serial numbers, put together from parts acquired separately. They are an increasing problem on the streets of our cities, including in Oakland, and in The New York Times has been investigating their evolution and impact in a series of articles. In a recent story, they checked-in with Youth ALIVE! Violence Interrupter Antoine Towers about what he is seeing on the streets of Oakland. From the article:
