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Youth Violence Solution: Authorities Ignore Activists
Linn Washington Jr.
Over three thousands miles and more than forty years in age separate anti-violence activists Bilal Qayyum and Noel Williams yet each advocates a similar solution to ‘the problem’ they seek to solve in their respective cities located on separate sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Qayyum, 69, of Philadelphia, Pa and Williams, 25, of London, UK each see employment as the critical tool needed to counter violence among youth and young adults living in low-income communities.
“In all my years of working to reduce violence it’s very clear to me that jobs are a major solution to reducing violence in low income communities,” Qayyum said speaking about his roots in violence reduction efforts that date from the 1970s as an anti-gang worker.
“Jobs, well paying ones, give people a strong feeling of worth. Poverty breeds violence.”
Sadly, Williams and Qayyum each see the same roadblock on violence reduction: the persistent failure of public sector authorities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to fully engage community-based persons with the front-line experiences required to effectively resolve the ‘violence problem’ that authorities proclaim they want to solve.
Noel Williams
Williams, an ex-gang leader in southwest London turned university student, said, “Who comes to me and asks for advice? I know gangs. I know how it feels to be shot and how it feels to walk down the road feeling oppression from police.”
Williams bristles at the fact that authorities continually employ persons with no life-connection to violence as paid staff to lead violence reduction initiatives.
“If you want to help people who’ve been to prison why is it that people who’ve been in prison are never hired?” ex-inmate Williams said.
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Source: http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/3078
