Ahead of President Obama’s speech on violence, youth and mothers call for policies to address root causes of violence

 

Youth living through loss of friends and family to the ongoing violence plaguing Chicago as well as mothers of some of the victims will gather outside of the high school in Woodlawn where President Obama is scheduled to give a speech later in the afternoon Friday to express what they hope his speech will address. They will ask for the voices excluded from conversations about violence to be heard and for policies that can heal chicago by addressing root causes like poverty, lack of health care, lack of jobs, school closure, lack of mental health and criminalization of youth of color. 

Among them will be the Black Youth Project, the organization that started the change.org petition asking the President to come to Chicago to speak on the crisis, Fearless Leading by the Youth who has been organizing for trauma care on the south side and reinvestment of resources from prisons into youth programs and services and mothers of violence victims and mothers of those who are now incarcerated for participating in violence.

“We as youth need investment, guidance and care. We won’t get those essential things through police brutality and incarceration. Our youth need a better public education system not school closings. We need more jobs for youth because when all the smoke clears the main root to violence on the south side of Chicago is poverty. These kids out here are starving for everyday needs. I’d like to see Mayor Rahm Emmanuel live in neighborhood’s where there are more abandoned homes than there are trees, more police officers than mentors and virtually no way around these conditions,” says Veronica Morris-Moore, who will be one of the youth leaders speaking at the press conference.

The press conference will be held Friday, February 15th at 10 a.m., outside Hyde Park High School  (or at north edge of security checkpoint along Stony Island if it’s set up already) where President Obama will give speech addressing violence,
Speakers at the press conference will include:

TJ Crawford from the Black Youth Project, the organization that started the petition asking President Obama to come to town and make a major speech on gun violence

 
Sheila Rush, mother of a victim of gun violence
Darrius Lightfoot, a co-founder of Fearless Leading by the Youth and an organizer in a campaign to re-direct funding from juvenile detention into restorative justice alternatives
Veronica Morris-Moore, a leader from Fearless Leading by the Youth
Deborah Taylor, a leader in Southside Together Organizing for Power whose son has been incarcerated for murder.