Feedback is here!

I'm pleased to share the feedback we collected from our last forum. For many, it was a powerful experience. Take a look and see for yourself!

How will you live the change you are seeking?

• I believe I can continue to use my voice to help out myself and others.
• I will attend Board of Education meetings.
• I can become a mentor to a young person. Pour some wisdom and love into another person’s life.
• I can get my community involved.
• Teach in New Haven Public School system.
• Mentoring / Big Sister program / Literacy Volunteer
• Tutoring and organizing: Jewish Coalition for Literacy. Organizing spring break in New Haven to introduce Yale students to the city.
• I would like to volunteer to work with teens.
• Get more resources into my school
• Mentor
• Just continuing with what I do.
• Teach youth history and culture / diversity; importance of belonging to something that makes sense
• To improve the community I would love to help open the Q House and have program that take youth on trips and different activities.
• Meet with young people on their turf and earn their trust.
• I hope to create diversified dance bands that have people coming together through dance and music.
• I can be a liaison for Fair Have Community Health Center / Wilbur Cross High School
• I could become more involved with educating youth about African-American history to develop a pride in their heritage and self.
• I can continue to advocate for youth, and to continue to make strides towards engaging youth around making positive moves in life.
• I can help young adults develop critical thinking skills through my work in youth development in the non-profit world.
• To try to educate the younger children to have respect for themselves and for the older generation. To take pride in themselves and their friends.
• I could be available as a tutor. This would allow me to be with young people and have them communicate with me and me with them.
• Partnership, collaboration, and more partnership
• I think that good leadership and someone that you can look up to as well as getting more involved in things you like to keep you off the street will help.
• Most important thing to reduce violence: get teens motivated, involved, and make them feel cared about.
  
  

What did you like about this conversation?

• I liked the participation and the consideration of others during the conversation.
• I liked the information given in the film
• It shows the other side of the fence
• I appreciated the ability to converse with others on a community level.
• Excellent exchange with respect for differing views
• I enjoyed hearing people who grew up in New Haven talk about their experience / opinions at the violence.
• As I watched the documentary, my feelings were very hurt and powerful because everything was true. It brought back memories of my losses for nothing, just to try to be on top and “in.” Fighting battles with each other is dumb when we should be fighting together for peace and to become something in life. Speak up and make the right choices as well as think before you do it. Is it really worth it? This documentary wants to make me go home and make better choices and do better.
• Very powerful. The film really talks about gangs and hoods and gets deep into why youth fight over hoods. Also, I felt everything was true in the documentary and I liked how they had teenagers explain and talk about gang and hood violence. It is an issue that is ridiculous and unnecessary to die over repping a hood, because it isn’t going to get you anywhere in life but prison or death. It makes you really sit back and think about how teens today think repping a hood and fighting over territory is so important, and necessary. I agree that teens today need more role models to follow to do the right thing.
• First off, I thought it was a very good movie. It showed the positive and negative effects on neighborhoods in New Haven. I felt very sorry for the lady that lost her son because no one can imagine how it feels to lose a child until it happens to a mother that never though such violence as this would take away the life of her son or daughter. Think about it: we can be the victim of a gunshot that was meant to go to someone else.
• The movie brought about a reality of violence in New Haven that I had heard about, but had never seen. It was a wake up call to me that things need to change and that we need to be the ones to help make this change happen. I was saddened by this movie. It was sad to see students comparing themselves to animals and it was sad to see the students representing such negative images. But I had hope to see youth talking in such positive ways about why it’s happening and talking about thinking before acting and/or reacting. Thinking about the whole picture: we need to take action.
• I really liked the short film. How it made me feel: guilty, sorry, hopeful, because I’m glad people (and students especially) have become so passionate about solving the problem of violence in New Haven. As someone from outside New Haven, it really helped me to better understand the situation.

What can be done to improve this conversation?

• To improve our conversation we can write down points that were made that we can specify with or interested us
• What is the follow-up? This is just scratching the surface. Who will be a part of this process and how will the youth most affected by marginalization, inadequate education, lack of resources, violence be brought to the table and to the process.
• This meeting was rushed and too scheduled. Wish we had more conversation time but great efforts and stepping up was both recognized and appreciated.
• What will happen with the information given by each group?
• This conversation needs to be continued in the communities in New Haven.
• Need to have dialogue in schools that are experiencing violence. I personally think that having this dialogue at a venue like ECA does not reach the majority of those that can contribute greatly to this dialogue.
• You should do this type of forum with educators to raise consciousness.
• We come up with good ideas, but we don’t have the resources, or we don’t know who to go to and get everything started.
  
  

Thoughts and Feelings:

• First of all, we need some help. Second of all, we need to realize that we would have so much power if we all just came together, used our voices and stopped being stupid. Teens have to have open minds. That’s the first step. And like I said, we need someone to help us. We need adults to realize teens are special and teens have talents and ideas. We just need people to help us do it.
• I was angry. I was angry at the fact that so many people believe that they have to “rep” a neighborhood. They took this repping thing to a much, much further extent. I mean it is okay to have pride in where you live but doing that does not require the immense amount of violence, killing, robbery, and crime that has been occurring. In my opinion, I think all of the violence that has been taking place is due to the adults, parents and youths’ lack of judgment, responsibility and maturity. I mean it takes quite an irresponsible and immature person to actually die or kill someone just over repping a hood.
• I felt almost as an outsider at first, being white and all. I almost feel like an enemy. I wasn’t really raised this way and it makes me feel sad and angry at the fact that these things happen just because people have nothing else to hold on to. How could people grow up like this? What has happened that brought this upon us? I’ve only really been introduced to this new culture this year. As I embraced it, I’ve learned what really goes on. What this culture is really all about. There has been so much that has been in the shadows. I feel like my life has been sheltered. It was cool though when they asked the youths what they thought about repping their hoods and stuff like that. I feel even more determined now than ever to put a stop to all this violence. I’m glad that we have created such amazing ways to help stop it all though. It’s things like Peace Jam, where youths can work together and speak out on violence.
• I feel that most of the things that were discussed and talked about in this film were true. I feel that we should try to do something to change it, because many young people wouldn’t want their kids to turn out how they were, or be exposed to it. It also makes me feel curious and worried because when I am older and have kids I wouldn’t want them to be exposed to it, like I am. I live in the T’re and it isn’t a good place to be exposed to, so I feel that we should try to change the community. It also makes me feel angry because many people claim that they rep such and such just to show someone else who they are or who they want to be.
• [The film] reminded me of some of the kids in my classes. It helped me to better understand where some of my students are coming from. I also felt really upset when the one girl compared people in different neighborhoods to dogs fighting over territory. Also, I don’t understand why people rep.

Recommendations to Others:

• Mental health component necessary and must be professional. Involve the schools from the top down. Redirect money from incarceration into programs for youth. Street outreach would reach drug culture. Need to be paid enough to risk their lives. Police – perception is not respected or respecting.
• Recognize youth talents. Bail doesn’t help. Youth are the future. More positive role models. Enforce a negative with a positive. Find the source of the problem. Reach out to the hood.
• Have programs that will get them off the streets. Have basketball competition, etc. Meet youth where they are and gain their trust.
• Build community centers for activity for the youths in their neighborhoods.
• Basketball tournaments. More youth programs located in more neighborhoods.
• More youth programs. Get out to the troubled youth.
• Have more basketball programs during the weekdays so teens will stop shooting each other and basically have something to do.
• I would like to see a detailed review of the schools’ teaching habits. Family life should be enforced. Teach each child who they are; what they represent; where their ancestors come from.
• Conflict mediation / positive communication. Mentoring young people. Developing young leaders. Teach kids where they come from: know your history; know what has come before; understand the present situation; build a future to look forward to
• (1) Try to reach out to others about how violence can affect our lives. (2) give youth jobs, make sure they become successful as they help themselves become successful. (3) Try to show hardcore kids that rep the hoods that they are loved and welcomed.
• To reduce violence: youth summer programs and activities.
• I think teens could go to school more they could get a job and help clean up the streets. Teens could talk to other adults and let them know what is going on and how they feel about their hood.
• I think the best way to reduce violence is to set up teen centers where teens go out to get involved in activities so that they aren’t on the streets repping their hood, getting shot or killed.
• (1) Have a mentor that used to be a gang member but changed his ways and is willing to talk to youth about gang violence. (2) Community centers: dance centers, talk centers, homework centers.
• Recreational facilities where the kids can have fun, and don’t think about what hood everyone came from. It will be a facility made just for kids to have fun, violence-free fun.
• Come together as a group and vote. Join organizations that make a difference. Take your talent to the next level and become successful in life.
• Help reduce youth violence: create hang out places for kids to go and stay off the streets; place these rec centers in between two hoods so they can bond and encourage them to as well.
• Recreational facilities (after school) and summer programs
• Mentoring, role models, and positive after-school programs, summer programs, rec centers