Youth Voice Violence and Vigilance Summit

The lyrics “Let’s break walls so we see through, let love and peace lead you, we could overcome the complication cause we need to, help each other make these changes” by the Black Eyed Peas is telling of some of the work done by a local group of youth. Youth Voice, a teen-led organization in Southwest Detroit, has started to break some of those walls and make changes.

In October 2009, they hosted the summit “Vigilance and Violence.” Students from Western, Southwestern, Cass Tech, Cesar Chavez Academy, Earhart and Phoenix came to show their support along with parents and teachers. With over 300 people in attendance at Western International High School, Youth Voice members made their concerns about violence in the community and schools heard. Issues of slow response time, a lack of teen input and not knowing which system to call were addressed with Chief of Police, Warren Evans, Chief of DPS, Roderick Grimes and DPS Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb.

Youth voice members stood strong and held their ground on many of their issues. Even when the youth did not get everything they were asking for they bartered for commitments for regularly scheduled meetings to go over a “safety report card,” to have student input in the DPS school code of conduct and to give immediate notifications of safety risks to all schools in the area, including private and charter schools. Through the planning and implementation of the summit, the youth put a strong foot forward in overcoming the violence with vigilance. As the Flobots state “blow for blow never settles the score, we the people don’t want war.” Stand up, be heard and be a part of the solution. This group is attempting to do just that.