BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Community outreach service members came together to hear from those who say they want safer streets and more resources to fight against violence in Buffalo.
22-year-old Mikail Walton was among dozens of people who came to the Merriweather Library on Jefferson Avenue Wednesday night to talk about their close encounters with violence.
“It messes with your mind mentally it’s just like you don’t think it’s real at first until you go a couple of days, a couple of weeks calling that person and they don’t answer,” he says. “I saw my cousin die at nine years old. I had a lot of friends that died to violence, and I feel like it’s the matter of us just loving each other. “
22-year-old Dequan Newton is in college studying to be an auto mechanic while 22-year-old Thomas James is in school for audio and production.
They were both raised on the East Side of Buffalo, and both say they knew they were destined to shine a light on the world.
“I've seen a lot of things in my life. I understand where you can be and I know where I can go,” Newton says. “So it’s all about understanding that your surroundings don’t affect or guide you to who you are. you have to be a bigger and better person.”
“I grew up in the projects. I've seen a little bit of everything, and I was never the one to get into things," James says. "I was always playing a game and I was always doing my own thing and being positive.”
There were older adults who had the chance to share their stories with the youth as well.
Like Malcolm Martin, an outreach worker at Buffalo SNUG.
“I'm also a victim of gun violence. I've been shot multiple times myself,” Martin says. “I was one of those children that believed that there was no way out. But there is a way.”
And that’s why he decided to work for SNUG.
“Basically what Buffalo SNUG does in the community is to mediate conflicts, and we do that by reaching out to individuals that are at high risk of being shot or shooting someone themselves,” he says.
Whitney Dean, gun violence prevention specialist at the Buffalo Urban League, spoke on the importance of creating a safe space for a healing journey.
“So this is about presenting them with an example of unification amongst the older people,” Dean says. “An example of us expressing ourselves and making spaces to express themselves in order to see the need and come with a solution.”
Others spoke about the mental aspect of violence.
“Mental illness is trauma stored in the body that isn’t able to get up so when we do a lot of inner healing,” says Hydeia Walker, director of public relations of Buffalo Urban League. “And revert back to who as a child before life groomed us into whether through poverty, violence.”
Below are community outreach resources:
Buffalo Urban League
716-250-2400
Buffalo Peacemakers
716-912-7188
Buffalo SNUG
716-961-6947
Buffalo Most Valuable Parents(MVP)
585-JOINMVP
Bury the Violence
btvbuffalo@gmail.com
Stop the Violence Coalition
716-715-1375
