Current:Home > StocksMany children are regularly exposed to gun violence. Here's how to help them heal-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Many children are regularly exposed to gun violence. Here's how to help them heal
View Date:2024-12-23 23:32:36
On a spring day, a group of elementary students and their chaperones walk along a sidewalk in the Lyell-Otis neighborhood of Rochester, N.Y. A few blocks away is their destination: Cameron Community Ministries' after-school program.
The mood is cheerful – some of the kids are leaping or skipping – but their path, which they routinely take, passes more than a dozen spots where murders and aggravated assaults have happened in the last decade.
There's the block west of here where a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed, allegedly by a classmate, back in March. He's one of at least six minors who have been killed by gunfire since January, according to Rochester Police.
The students cross Otis Street where, six years ago, a father was shot and killed one morning as children were arriving at the school across the street. According to a report by a local paper that day, a neighbor saw dozens of children run "screaming at the top of their lungs" into the building.
Kaila Toppin remembers it – her sister was there.
"The school went into lockdown because [a student's] father got shot."
Toppin, 19, used to be a student with the program at Cameron. Now, she's a chaperone, and Phyllipp McKnight is one of her charges. He's been exposed to neighborhood violence, and he's only in second grade.
"If you don't know the violence, I'm teaching you right now," he says. "And when you become 6 years old, like me, I don't want this dark future that happened to me."
Many children like Phyllipp, who are regularly exposed to community gun violence, can struggle with feelings of hopelessness and anxiety. They can also have difficulty regulating their emotions – all symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can have lasting impacts into adulthood.
But there's a lot communities and after-school programs can do to help.
Teaching children that life doesn't have to end in their teens
Riana Elyse Anderson, who studies child trauma and Black families at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, says the key is to create supportive environments for children.
"The more you have supportive structures around you – like family, like peers, like adult mentors – the better chance you have of ... surviving because you're active and engaged and perhaps in spaces that may be a bit safer."
Those supportive structures also help children shed challenging psychological beliefs, like life ends in your teens or life has little value – beliefs that can be reaffirmed by fatal neighborhood shootings.
Anderson says one way to get those supportive structures in place is through after-school programs, which not only keep kids supervised and off the street, but can also help children and teens learn about their strengths, dreams and culture. Most of all, it can help them see that life is valuable.
Cameron Community Ministries' after-school program does this through mentoring, field trips and team-building activities. Luis Mateo, a youth program director, says he also teaches his students leadership skills, guides them through community-oriented projects and steps in when students are going through something heavy – like after the recent mass shooting in nearby Buffalo, or after a neighborhood incident.
"I had two kids that were just, like, stunned because a friend of theirs was shot," Mateo recalls. "He lived but it was still traumatizing... So I talk with them, make sure they're OK while that was going on. And on that street, too, another child was shot coming off of the bus. So it's been a lot of violence, and unfortunately, they've normalized to it and it's just another day in the neighborhood for them."
Helping kids cope with their harsh reality is important, but Mateo says his youth program also prioritizes giving children and teens space to be themselves, be safe and explore their interests.
"You have these after school programs that are helping young people just identify who they are, what is it that they can do," Anderson says. "When they live past 18, what is it that they want to contribute to their neighborhoods, to their families, to their culture, to themselves?"
How neighborhood violence and aggression interrupts happiness and joy
Phyllipp McKnight's mother, Lerhonda McKnight, is one of a few guardians at Cameron Community Ministries' summer cookout in August. She cleans up after the kids and keeps an eye out for mischief – like the boy shaking up a soda can, getting ready to spray it open.
"Hey! Don't do that. Don't do it," McKnight warns with a laugh. "Put it down, let it sit for a couple minutes. Caught ya!"
Like Kaila Toppin and Phyllipp, McKnight also grew up exposed to neighborhood violence. She says she's been through things that she doesn't want her kids to ever experience, so she stays involved, brings them to Cameron, and makes sure to show them love.
"If the kids don't get [love] at home, they're gonna go somewhere else to get it. They're going to. Whether they find it in streets, whether they find it in a drug house," McKnight says. "They're going to find it, because everybody needs it – everybody – because that's what life is about."
Across the street, a fight breaks out. There's yelling and physical threats. McKnight barely acknowledges it. Around here, but not just here, violence and aggression have become as commonplace as inclement weather.
Kaila Toppin says she's seen more than enough of it for a lifetime.
"It makes being happy and joyful, like it interrupts it sometimes. Like in the back of my mind, you know?," Toppin says. "I'm out there having a good time but sometimes it just makes me think something bad could happen, because of all the bad things that happen. I don't know, it makes it different and it also makes it a cautious joy."
Toppin's vigilance is a matter of survival. It's what drives her to protect younger kids, so that they'll have a chance to experience life after childhood.
veryGood! (2286)
Related
- Auburn surges, while Kansas remains No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll
- Josh Duggar to Remain in Prison Until 2032 After Appeal in Child Pornography Case Gets Rejected
- Nets coach Vaughn says team from Israel wants to play exhibition game Thursday despite war at home
- A UN-backed expert will continue scrutinizing human rights in Russia for another year
- Jared Goff stats: Lions QB throws career-high 5 INTs in SNF win over Texans
- More than 90% of people killed by western Afghanistan quake were women and children, UN says
- Russian President Putin arrives in Kyrgyzstan on a rare trip abroad
- No. 1 pick Connor Bedard scores first career goal in slick play vs. Boston Bruins
- UFC 309: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic fight card, odds, how to watch, date
- Researchers find fossils of rare mammal relatives from 180 million years ago in Utah
Ranking
- When does 'Dune: Prophecy' come out? Release date, cast, where to watch prequel series
- An Israeli jewelry designer described as ‘the softest soul’ has been abducted, her family says
- How Barbara Walters Reacted After Being Confronted Over Alleged Richard Pryor Affair
- Israel kibbutz the scene of a Hamas massacre, first responders say: The depravity of it is haunting
- The Office's Kate Flannery Defends John Krasinski's Sexiest Man Alive Win
- Stock market today: Asian shares rise with eyes on prices, war in the Middle East
- Indiana woman charged after daughter falls from roof of moving car and fractures skull, police say
- Astros eliminate Twins, head to seventh straight AL Championship Series
Recommendation
-
NFL coaches diversity report 2024: Gains at head coach, setbacks at offensive coordinator
-
Scientists count huge melts in many protective Antarctic ice shelves. Trillions of tons of ice lost.
-
What is an Ebony Alert? California law aims to confront crisis of missing Black children and young people
-
While the news industry struggles, college students are supplying some memorable journalism
-
Auburn surges, while Kansas remains No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll
-
Miley Cyrus and Boyfriend Maxx Morando Enjoy Rare Public Night Out at His L.A. Concert
-
Indigenous leader of Guatemalan protests says they are defending democracy after election
-
'Hot Ones,' Bobbi Althoff and why we can't look away from awkward celebrity interviews