'That could have been me': DC kids exposed to violence take part in youth summit
WASHINGTON, DC (7News) — The policymakers and city leaders have talked and workshopped, and created programs to tackle youth violence.
Still, the trend continues.
Amid seemingly daily headlines, the D.C. youth who are seeing their peers too quick to pick up a gun, or finding themselves on the wrong side of one, are stepping up to voice concerns and propose solutions.
"That boy got killed over at Brookland, then another boy got killed, and it's people that I knew,” said 13-year-old Sanai Miles. “So, I just see it all over. I think, 'that could have been me. We're the same age.’"
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Miles lives in Northeast D.C. and took part in the youth summit Wednesday at the Thurgood Marshall Center in Northwest.
She said she heard of the opportunity through the Black Swan Academy.
The organization pushes young people to engage and lead in their communities, and often that’s in the same neighborhoods where they are exposed to violence.
"One day, I walked to the store with my friend and they were shooting,” she said. “I was inside the store, I was about to leave, and I just saw everybody run in the store. I heard gunshots, multiple gunshots, and my friend was hyperventilating. The store owner said don't go outside. My friends were out there, so it could have been one of them that got shot."
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Like most teenagers, those sharing their experiences at the summit just want to go out with friends and have fun, but they say the danger is real.
Many of them identified the need for support for everyday needs like food.
They also included the need for extra and early attention to growing needs like mental health and conflict resolution as some of the most crucial priorities.
"I think getting to young children in the community because they think that violence is okay, and they think playing with guns and posing with them and all that stuff is okay when it's not,” Miles said. "I think they need to know what to do in that type of situation if they're ever around that. Just don’t touch a gun."
