This Saturday, the Buffalo alumni chapter of Sigma Gamma Roh sorority is hosting their youth symposium addressing the issue of gun violence amongst young people.
Dr. Fatima Morrell, Centennial vice president and youth symposium says the symposium is open to youth 12 to 18 and they can come and just show up and we will be prepared to just receive them. They will be offering a nice lunch and breakfast. It is taking place at McKinley High School.
She says we bring to them, combating community gun violence. D. Morrell says this is an issue that is prevalent in our community, at this time, and we want to have a real dialogue with our young people around, why is it happening, what is the issue, how do we prevent it, how can we not become a part of it? They are bringing in two dynamic speakers, Pastor Kenneth Simmons as well as Pastor Tim Newkirk. She says these two gentlemen are leaders in the City of Buffalo around community violence and preventing it and combating it and addressing young people in addition to a real conversation about how do we really address this issue that is of great concern, and we feel that McKinley is ground zero for what has happened in our community and in a Buffalo public school so we want to make sure that we know and understand that it is not just something that happened at McKinley but it is prevalent in our community. She says we know sadly, this past weekend, we lost a Buffalo State college student to gun violence. Gun violence is impacting young people especially between the ages of 14 and 24. She goes on to say it is also about proposing solutions to how we move forward.
Yolanda Gatewood, Centennial president says Sigma Gamma Roh was founded on November 12, 1922, at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana by seven African American women educators. She says we are the only historically black sorority founded in a predominantly white college during the height of Jim Crow segregation and we were in close proximity to one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the country. She says with that our motto of greater service, greater progress helps us to affect the quality of life of women and their families in the U.S. and globally through our social and civil actions and our community service events like Youth Symposium.
