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Gun Violence in Chicago

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Hyde Park students interview anti-gun violence activists. Champs, No Brother left Behind organizations. Real talk from Real people who have lived the life and changed for the better.

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January 1st of March 9th at the soonest of fatal and in the African-American community of the south side of Chicago with 70% have you were able to gun violence victim and think to yourself why is this happening more importantly how do we stop and prevent this I am your host John mirror today it will be discussing gun violence prevention alongside we have some of the pioneers of the Southside violence prevention efforts let's get into it what's up what's up what's the word on this episode talking about uh violence prevention don't buy the ticket okay okay it's a little backstory on violence Southside preferably become violent second at packing you know the area hold on 100 years so with that being said it's been culturally Mis escalation like culture as well so today we just want to you know just talk about it see who really out there you know dynamic forces trying to prevent this thing happen so so um also look back so we're going to go with me they issue tomorrow's regarding guns as much as you all know to see the carry know shoot first off in the nation and the reason why you say I don't don't package you not only that but how you transform your way of thinking and to go and print this so with today I just do a basic explanation to you guys about who today Jamaican Samir and dynamic force and the violence ground uh Community empowerment he began his journey uh from from the confines of prison where he went and sent his 35 years of crime he did not commit he deserves his call a catalyst for positive change and now with many organizations and owner of many businesses regarding the government Community Development like violence through violence and building up behind much more also growing up on the south with a lot of crime really challenges 1 Diehl continue to pursue and beat the odds adversity above adversity and for the last 21 years this primary focus has been higher education use enrichment and Community Development 1 day is gold star winning uh program named checks also is The Advisory Board uh for the number of the uh Mentor in the New York MBK action team uh member of the Obama Foundation board member post and preservation uh so Mr Merit little bit about okay okay well no brothers left behind a community based organization that I founded like 2 and a half years years ago I want to bring something different to Chicago I want to bring some the best practice from around the world I'm familiar with B provincial organizations in Chicago but I had the best practices from around the world that I wanted to implement here right and uh I started it came to the community changed the norm talk to high risk individuals and showed them it's a different trajectory you can present it to different trajectory is what you do a lot of them know my background know what I've been through so they didn't bought into my way of thinking right if I'm thinking positive I influence them to think positive right so now from that I think I direct results of mindset change I didn't show them how to change the narrative by doing positive things some of those positive things is really um just having to work ethic you know them seeing me coming off in prayers that I have to do a 19 years and not jumping into this narcotics not jumping in the robbery kidnapping and murder Mayhem give me a job at 10:50 an hour that was like uh amazing to them it was amazing to me it was challenging but I did that I accomplished that right that worked at the continued and from that work that I volunteered for cure violence for so long they brought me in as a consultant um I did great at that I became a TA National ta uh implementation specialist where we around the world implement the Cure violence model throughout the world that was a great experience for me but I have to resign from that organization because I felt as though I wanted to start my own nonprofit and show other brothers and sisters that we can't start our own organizations and Implement our own make home office and do our own different things but doing it in violent prevention then and I'll be able to affect a lot more brothers and sisters in training so that's what I did and I've been doing that for the last 2 and a half years and I salute brothers and sisters who doing the same thing with these organizations also Monday can you tell us a little bit more about chance of a uh Community Development so first of all thank you for having us on on your podcast I think you're a wonderful leader in our community and young men look to guys like him because what I thought was cool way back in the early 80s cost most of my family death or prison I have a younger brother who was incarcerated right now my mother died of drugs in 1994 when I was 14 she was only 29 my father was incarcerated and put in prison and I became a ward of the state and it was a mentor in 1997 he actually showed me a new pathway he helped me get into college I went into college and 4 years later I was getting ready to graduate and I called them back because at the time of him helping me earlier on I really didn't know what he was doing and I said hey I want to thank you for what you've done for me and I said how do I pay you and you know what is response was brother he said the same thing I did for you do for somebody else that's how you pay me back and so I literally took that and ran with it I became a teacher a professional teacher I talk I became a school dean and a principal of a school I was an assistant principal at Gary comr not too far from here and that's why I started chaps 11 years ago started with 8 boys um have impacted over 8 thousand young men and my biggest thing is I tell them the same thing the same thing I did for you do for somebody else so mental health leadership development social emotional learning and identity formation is what we work on so so also another reason why I haven't looked at the name is to get your outlook talk to you today so the first question I have for you all is how do you feel about gunpowder you know I feel like gun violence is a issue where it's not just a I issued that affects 1 person is both sides of a gun it's a disease it's a mental illness that needs to be addressed when a person feel like they have to take another life for whatever reason I think you take and you play God it's only 1 never designed for us to take the life of another individual that we did not create and so for me it's really understanding those triggers and those traumas that go unaddressed uh so if I didn't get the help that I needed to get at the time that I got it I would have probably got pushed to the edge and did something very harmful not just to somebody but to myself because it's always too losses right somebody um do some something that they shouldn't be doing put bodily harm on the individual shooting kill somebody yeah you going to jail but they lost a loved 1 and so does your family so that their family so it's a lot of losses with that and I just think man we have to be able to these deep-seated emotions that we have they beautiful cuz God gave us emotions right but they they are created to help us push towards our purpose in life so yes I supposed to be wholly undignified when it's time to for the wrong reasons not for the right ones and unfortunate thing is many times you see a lot of the babies the elderly the mothers getting shot and killed because these folks ain't took no target practice they just shooting and spraying and trying to look cool like the movies and killing everybody but they intended target so I think it's a lot of uh teaching a lot of Correction and a lot of support and mentorship that needs to go into preventing such such all right let me piggyback right off there right and that's a great you know um analyzation of things and as well as like in this field you got a um you know no we up against right and we up against a community use you know going to things and going through a lot of different things that we've constantly been through it so now we knowing that it's individuals that who've been through these same situations can only kind of like talk to these individuals to show them a business perspective right so we try to catch everything on the front end by the meant to happen and we tried to mediate the arguments someone got shot a stab we tried to mediate that situation before it turns into a murder right and even if it turns into a murder we sit up here and try to talk to those individuals that who we assume may have been involved in a different groups and try to conflict that resolution right and stop the retaliation on the front end because more killings only going to add up to more Killers if you sit back and talk to someone let them know the consequences for this that know the things of that nature you educate them you know if you get a brother some education they going to change the narrative I went to the penitential I didn't have an education I came home got my GED got a master degree in Theology and PRI and I came home and I applied that I got into a re-entry program got my exact certification I became a national trainer and that's what I do I change the norm in my community in the community is abroad but you got to be individuals who passed it they bind to those individuals who really didn't change their lives you know they can tell if you pump fake and they can tell if you really not interested in them and change the norm right so when they see individual really about that life and really that change they following those footsteps so I showed them personally like what I had been through I got a little brother in jail right now and Tennessee with life but I showed him hey man I make sure those brothers and sisters in jail changed the narrative communicating with them like I was in a Penitentiary changed the narrative but I got that before individuals out here in the streets that was doing it they were sending me the material but I didn't buy into the material I bought into their subsequent character what they was doing cuz I was monitoring they movements out here on the streets right so that's the same thing and that what we do is pay attention to everything that's around us bro but have our brothers and sisters and in jail for that's Injustice that's locked up unjustly those brothers and sisters out here in these communities get them some Direction with these re-entry programs and change the norm I'm knowing if you show somebody how to uh professionalize themselves get a job they work that going to put down their gun right I was 1 of those individuals so now I'm doing some more positive and showing these brothers some positives I bought my mother house that's a flex you want to buy 5,000 car you ain't got no insurance you got a 10000 dollars worth of clothes on you not doing nothing we show the possible to do things right somehow you save your money I get you a building how you get your LLC how you get your nonprofit what's your passion is online you up with the money my passion is valid prevention that's all I do is violent prevention and it got me places I never thought I'd be right hey um I was just at the Capitol you know not even a week ago right on Capitol Hill testifying in the reference to that prevention CVI work right lobbying you know for violent prevention and that's what it's all about change the norm senator the question is how I know about the package personally um it's yeah me right I was never a victim of violence person I never been out of stabbed but I was more so the individual that was doing the chasing all the time it was high expectations of me in my community and the communities abroad when something happened I was the 1 have to react or what juice going to say what are you going to do about this and I was always the 1 to react to so God balance of you know I got unfortunately 20 years and the OC in the department of corrections I did 19 years straight so uh it it changed my Norm because that was the best 19 years I did in my life when I came home from the penitentiary I could have chose to go negative or a positive I chose a positive and look where it got me and I would say for me I had a second hand I didn't have a direct I had to do my father's my uncles my brothers and they taught me a lot of valuable lessons about what not to do you know sometimes you can learn from your own lived experience and sometimes you can learn from others experience experiences so for me God had me in a position where even though I grew up in a projects and ought to be Wells and saw a lot of things and heard a lot of things and were exposed to a lot of things God protected my little old heart man I didn't know what I was exposed to at 4 and 5 with my father putting the guns underneath 514 East 36th Street Apartment 202 telling me not to touch the gun a drug but I'm 4 years old so how do a kid like that process what's going on you see what your eyes you can't art you like with your words and that had a detrimental impact on me and when my father said son I'm doing this to take care of you I want you to go to school I can see the Love in My Father's Eyes he wasn't playing no games he was out here trying to survive the streets so Brothers listen to me if you watching this video whoever you are there are other ways guys we don't we don't have to go into retaliation mode we don't have to resolve to Violent acts of crime every single time there are brothers out here teaching us how to intervene how to resolve conflict they doing peace circles restorative justice and it works trust me and so I'm just really blessed um to have learned those lessons for myself and I'm also blessed to be able to share these lessons that I've learned and I'm still growing I'm still learning from Brother others like yourselves on how to do it better um and so I'm just man I'm just grateful uh that I was able to learn these these lessons from my family members on what not to do right yep that's that's so community this podcast was a podcast of overall perception about golf box how necessary and negative it is on the community I mean how negative it is on the community and how to admit this vital aspect to better our community also gun violence is packed and packed with many whether that's environment whether it is the between others whether that's culturally is impact so like this like these brothers are doing and saying today that's going to change let's push a different there instead of all like they said retaliation then they they don't have the app everything get America let's build our communities we can no longer excel in fostering like we just messing thinking about ourselves it takes multiple to be able to prosper to be able to show something it's very impactful when when not just only 1 but many come together so that's all let's just push The Narrative of positive in case possibly another episode peace peace peace for nonviolent Chicago to help Council others that have been affected by this issue also if you or anyone or someone that you know illegally has possession of a firearm let higher authority know or if you personally have a firearm illegally or legally know that Firearms are for protection and not even

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Gun Violence in Chicago

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