Voices of the Dropout Nation: Youth Violence Isn’t Just a Chicago Concern
As head of the Black Star Project, Phillip Jackson is often fighting a lonely battle to keep America’s black children in school and out of prison and trouble. These days, in his hometown of Chicago, it has become even harder. The city where “diploma dreams go to die”, has also seen hundreds of young students die inside and out of its public schools. In this piece, Jackson offers his own solutions for stemming youth violence for the long run.
Youth violence is a national issue. Since we began the Iraq war in 2003, an estimated 32,000 American youths lost their lives to violence — far more than the 4,349 U.S. soldiers who died in battle. Yet the United States treats youth violence as a nuisance, not as a war it wants to win.
We cannot fix the problems of children or schools in America without first fixing the problems of the adults in their lives and of the communities in which the children live. Anything else is pretending to fix the problem and is a community disservice!
So far, the most popular approaches to address youth violence have not made any significant nor long-term impact. More police merely militarizes and destabilizes communities. The other offering that haven’t worked includes: Stiffer sentencing for young offenders; direct intervention at the point of impending violence; vigils, peace rallies and peace marches through communities; and prayers without concrete, supportive actions.
Meanwhile there are effective approaches cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that have been shown to reduce youth violence over time and produce long-term, lasting, positive results. Build strong families and communities and employ good parents as the chief agents to reduce youth violence. Teach young children ways to resolve conflict peacefully. Provide mentors to serve as guides and role models for positive youth behavior. Reduce social and economic causes of violence in young people’s environments. And ensure spiritual or character-based training for young children and reinforce that training throughout their early teen years.
In Chicago, the youth, themselves, are asking for more mentors, more parent involvement in their lives and more job and economic opportunities. Their requests parallel CDC’s recommendations to reduce violence. But these requests – and the solutions – are ignored. While government attempts to study, analyze and understand youth violence, the Black Star Project is implementing workable solutions in Chicago — ground zero for the war against youth violence.
Each day, the Black Star Project has 250 male and female volunteers who mentor youth on school days. Since 1996, the Black Star Project has provided classroom-based mentoring to nearly 200,000 Chicago-area students. We also have 100 Peace Walkers who patrolled high-risk neighborhoods in Chicago this summer; 70 Parent University professors who have taught thousands of parents to be great parents since 2004 and 25 college coaches who have helped prepare thousands of elementary school students for college.
Through our Million Father March 2009, we organized 625,000 fathers in 500 cities across America to take their children back to school on the first day. These are the kinds of “armies of hope” that the federal government needs to win this war.
If we continue to address this problem with the current lack of resolve, including misdirected, piece-meal efforts with too-few resources — just as we lost the war in Vietnam, then we are destined for a resounding defeat in the war against youth violence on the streets of America.
The effort to eliminate youth violence commands a national response that includes national resources, a national infrastructure and national leadership. This effort must be comprehensive and coordinated across foundation, government, faith-based and community-based organizational lines. Many organizations such as The Black Star Project are working to restore order in chaotic and violence-ridden neighborhoods. Our efforts are essential to eliminate violence, restore hope and reduce the need for militarizing our many troubled communities.
Our war to save the minds and spirits of our children is the most important war that America will ever fight. Saving our children is difficult because of the “No Snitching” code-of-silence among our American youth, which has proved devastating and unacceptable in this war. Yet our government’s “No Support” policy for organizations that work for long-term solutions to fix this problem of youth violence in American communities is inexcusable. In fact, “No Support” is far, far worse than “No Snitching,” and our children know it!
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UNITED COAST TO COAST ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
ONE LOVE 2009
This is the plan which has been formulated to solve most of the gang and crime attractions that are within the urban communities across the country. The United Coast to Coast entrepreneurship clothing’s and products line. Our network-marketing plan is designed to create enormous amounts of wealth growth opportunities for honest ambitious persons through sales and commerce entrepreneurship.
This idea was formulated by my understanding the power of sales through many other business opportunities. Some illegal but which did in fact attract many young persons into its chaos and dangerous pathway because of the individual’s needs and the same individuals lacking of opportunities.
I created this business opportunity concept to give legitimate job opportunities to hundreds and thousands of everyday people who only need the opportunity of a new and better vision for themselves and their lives as well as the lives of their loved ones. My entrepreneurship business plans will also provide opportunities for the people who get side tract into a life of gangs and crime.
We at United Coast to Coast clothing’s and products will not discriminate against a person who may have made some bad choices in their lives and gotten locked up in prison or created a felony conviction record , because I do not believe that should be a reason to lock a worthy person out of this entrepreneurship opportunity. I have been discriminated for that very thing myself many times because of my criminal back ground and lost even an opportunity to have a job.
I was made to feel as though, I was deemed as unworthy to be treated with equality and it hurt me in my own mind yes but it also was in effect assigning my life to an underclass of life style.
Filled with repeat of crime and incarceration violence and worst, an attitude that I was a gangster , a criminal, and many other undesirable self imagery and self descriptions, in the ranks of people who have gotten themselves locked up in prisons or jails in some cases, but now find themselves out of prison and unable find a job.
We have plans to provide jobs in the security and protection services also. Our united Coast to Coast security and protection services will provide private security guards and body guards, event security services and property security, we will employ hundreds and thousands of people in our services . The armed guards and the unarmed guards will be available through our services. We will also work with the individuals who have had problems getting a job in their past and provide new opportunities to work on the job and make a good wage and earn an honest living. I have dedicated three and one half of a year to finding out why people are involved in gangs and drugs and crime, I have spoken to hundreds of people about their views and their feelings concerning the results of gangs , drugs and crime.
I did this because even though I have experienced all of the above personally being a gang member a criminal and prisoner myself, that is not enough. I wanted a well rounded perspective to base my findings upon. To come up with a plan of solutions to resolve this self-destructive behavior, at its root, this in my view is at the home and family units.
Now I will give to you an over view of a few plans to resolve gang , crime and violence problems . Thus number one is my martial arts schools for self-defense training. We will begin to bring young persons into our self-defense schools and teach them true self-defense, moral values and respect for ones own-self, parents, associates and home community.
Then there is our entrepreneurship business plan which I spoke about above. Our parenting program serves to make a connection between the schools , the students , the instructors and the businesses and meeting the needs of our students at every level; which is a plan to get involved in supporting family units and encouraging unity, love as well as respect for family values. Young people don’t fail because they are not good enough to do well. They fail because they don’t believe they can do well, because we are responsible to provide the opportunity but we are missing the mark of setting the stage of expectations the tell your child yes you can be excellent because we have provided a way for you. If you follow these pathways that we have established then you will pass by all of the drug dealers the rap stars, and the sports stars too.
You can succeed in business, in literature, in politics, and so many avenues, but we need to start by you making a decision now to change. You change directions and we open new doors, this starts with you. I believe that my failures in life can serve as a diving board for some young person out there to reach an enormous success. I plan to use it for my own success as well and prove to these kids that they can overcome failures with enormous success. I am also setting up ladders of opportunities to enable youth to climb into new heights and to see new visions , new possibilities and reach new realities for themselves. For it is true quoting Mr. Napoleon Hill, “ Whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve.” I want to give the youth a new vision for themselves, all colors all races just all kids, need to be loved and encouraged to love one another.
My goal is to create wealth opportunities so that in effect I will subtract from the number of negative by creating a positive. Some have been criticized for suggesting that the drug trafficking problem is in part our own responsibility but I must confess that the assumption that we do have a partial responsibility for creating the problem because of creating a demand has merit. The un spoken factor though is that many of the people who are assisting the imports and the distributions of drugs are doing it purely for financial reasons.
I propose a new venue of financial opportunities that will redirect so many young peoples ideas , their aspirations and their lives. The shift will effect not only the youth of today but this plan as I have outlined with all of its components, the martial arts and self- defense schools, the security and protection services job creation, the clothing entrepreneurship clothing’s business plan.
The parenting programs to assist parents and families, Did you know what the oldest profession known to man is? It is not ever going anywhere, because mankind will take and steal from his fellow man and threaten his neighbors very life if not prevented by the watchful eye of security guards and protection agents. Our security and protection services are needed today in 2009 and will be ever growing and productive in our business plan.
We are going to give financial support and counseling support, to help the family units operate to the advantage of guiding their young people to achieve any dreams they may have. There are more plans for community development stimulants and youth development proactive community centers planned, if you are interested , please contact me personally or someone in my organization soon.
Thank you! Mr. Gilbert Wainwright Founder/ C.E.O United Coast to Coast, One Love 2009