Having the time and space to discuss some of life’s most important and sometimes disturbing events is important for many young people today. That space and time is carved out for members of My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper and is a centerpiece of recent joint chapter meetings of the brother/sister organization.
My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper began in 2014 and has spread nationwide. The groups have hosted and participated in some significant district-wide events that Paschal’s MBK chapter has had the opportunity to join.
After rescheduling due to the intense weather during the MLK weekend, the Paschal chapter of MBK joined chapters from Southwest, Northside, Polytech, Trimble Tech, Dunbar, and North Crowly for a luncheon on Saturday, January, 21st in honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, to connect the community and create a progressive space where young people from all over the school district could come together.
There, students engaged with one another, identified issues within their community, had meaningful discussions about what progress could be made, and learned to better express themselves through lessons in leadership that the mentors taught.
In small groups, participants discussed how to participate in local politics, collaborate and communicate with fellow community members, and discuss the first measures to take when they wish to see change.
Paschal’s MBK president, Kolten Williams, said, “It was beneficial for us because we were in a room with good male role models, and they let us know there was hope for light at the end.”
“It was good for us to be with adults that are more knowledgeable than us and are able to lead us in a good direction rather than a bad one,” adds Paschal MBK member Anthony Sanchez.
Two weeks later, on February 2-3, the district’s MBK/MSK chapters attended the Tarrant County Youth Gun Violence Workgroup Summit, hosted by the United Way of Tarrant County’s One Second Collaborative program.
They partnered with the City of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Police Department, and Tarrant County to bring several community-based organizations together to combat youth gun violence in our own Fort Worth community.
Again, students were able to connect and engage with one another, including different schools and groups outside of MBK/MSK. With a total of about 120 high school and college students, everybody maintained an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment.
Students shared very personal and emotional anecdotes about the causes and effects that gun violence has had on their families and communities. Stories about shared pain and death were all too common, and when asked by one of the coordinators to raise their hands if they or someone around them had been affected by gun violence, nearly the entire room raised it in unison.
Afterward, students were once again separated into small groups where they discussed solutions to the dangers they faced and what a safe community and neighborhood would look like. They identified problems such as anger, division, poverty, drugs, and not being provided with the tools and means to be able to share and discuss differences.
Solutions such as community centers, continuous discussion of the issue instead of just ignoring the problem, reallocating funds to more underprivileged neighborhoods, and striving toward unity were also part of the day’s discussions.
“If everyone knew each other, I don’t think they would kill each other. I asked my brother, who’s in prison, if he would have done what he did if he had known the person, and he said, ‘No, I wouldn’t shoot somebody I knew,’” said one of the students present at the event.
“We face so many problems like drugs and anger at home, and the next thing you know, you find yourself on the streets needing a gun to protect yourself,” said another participant.
Finally, the rest of the One Second Collaborative sponsors and mentors entered the room and commenced a panel discussion. First, a select group of 4 students, chosen to represent the group and share the discussions, talked about stepping up and becoming a voice for change.
Then, the adult sponsors discussed empowering and educating youth in ways we as a community can unite and strive forward. Fort Worth City Councilman Jared Williams, who represents District 6 of Fort Worth, which includes the south and southwest sides of the city and is one of the driving forces behind the One Second Collaborative, ended the event with an admonition.
“I grew up in Fort Worth, on the southwest side,” said Williams. “I, too, was impacted by gun violence. I (now)get reports when bad things happen in our community, and too often, it’s our kiddo’s lives on the line.” He continued, “Our decisions have impacts, and in one second, you can make a decision that can either save someone’s life or take someone’s life…There is no way any of us was meant to do this work alone, and we weren’t meant to do it alone; we were meant to do it as a community.”
