Volunteers from McQuaid Jesuit High School play basketball with children during the Cameron Community Department after-school program.
Max Schulte / WXXI News
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Volunteers from McQuaid Jesuit High School play basketball with children during the Cameron Community Department after-school program.
Max Schulte / WXXI News
On a spring day, a group of elementary school students and their chaperones walked along the sidewalk in the Lyell-Otis section of Rochester, NY A few blocks away was their destination: The After School Program of the Cameron Community Department.
The mood is upbeat – some kids are jumping or skipping – but their path, which they often take, passes through more than a dozen locations where murders and serious assaults have occurred over the past decade .
There’s a block west of here where a 17-year-old boy was shot dead, allegedly by a classmate, in March. He is one of at least six minors who have been killed by firearms since January, according to Rochester Police.
Students cross Otis Street, where six years ago a father was shot dead one morning while the children were going to school across the street. According to one a report by a local newspaper That day, a neighbor saw dozens of children running “screaming in pain” into the building.
Kaila Toppin recalls it – her sister was there.
“The school is closed because [a student’s] father was shot. “
Toppin, 19, was a student of the program at Cameron. Now, she’s a chaperone, and Phyllipp McKnight is one of her charges. He had been abused by his neighbors and was only in second grade.
“If you don’t know violence, I’m teaching you right now,” he said. “And when you’re 6, like me, I don’t want this dark future to happen to me.”
Many children like Phyllipp, who are regularly exposed to gun violence in the community, can struggle with feelings of hopelessness and anxiety. They may also have trouble regulating their emotions – all symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can have lasting effects into adulthood.
But there’s a lot communities and after-school programs can do to help.
Teach your kids that life doesn’t have to end in adolescence
Riana Elyse Anderson, who studies black child and family trauma at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, says the key is creating supportive environments for children.
Kaila Toppin carries students after school Blessyn Mays on the playground at Cameron Community Department.
Max Schulte / WXXI News
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“The more support structures you have around you – like family, like peers, like a grown-up mentor – the better your chances are… to survive because you are active and engaged and maybe in spaces that could be a little safer.”
Those support structures also help children let go of challenging psychological beliefs, like life ends in adolescence or your life has little value – beliefs that can be reaffirmed. with deadly shootings in the neighborhood.
Anderson says one way to get those support structures in place is through after-school programs, which not only keep kids supervised and out on the street, but can also help kids and teens learn. about their strengths, dreams, and culture. Most of all, it can help them see that life is valuable.
The Cameron Community Department after-school program does this through mentoring, field trips, and team building activities. Luis Mateo, a youth program director, says he also teaches his students leadership skills, guiding them through community-driven projects and steps when students have to go through something. that’s heavy – like after the recent mass shooting in nearby Buffalo, or after an incident in the vicinity.
Mateo recalls: “I had two kids, it was like being stunned that one of their friends was shot. “He’s alive but he’s still traumatized… So I talk to them, make sure they’re okay while that’s going on. And on that street another kid has been injured. shot off the bus. So it was a lot of violence, and unfortunately, they’ve normalized it and it’s just another day in the neighborhood for them.”
Helping children cope with harsh realities is important, but Mateo says his youth program also prioritizes giving children and young people space to be themselves, be safe and explore. their preferences.
“You have these after-school programs that are helping young people define who they are, what they can do,” says Anderson. “When they live past 18, what do they want to contribute to the neighborhood, to their family, to their culture, to themselves?”
How neighbors’ violence and aggression disrupt happiness and joy
Phyllipp McKnight’s mother, Lerhonda McKnight, was one of the few guardians during the Cameron Community Department summer cookout in August. She cleans up after the kids and keeps an eye on mischief – like the boy shaking a soda can, about to spit it out.
“Hey! Don’t do that. Don’t do that,” McKnight warned with a laugh. “Put it down, let it sit for a few minutes. Catch ya!”
Like Kaila Toppin and Phyllipp, McKnight also grew up exposed to neighborhood violence. She says she’s been through things she doesn’t want her kids to go through, so she’s still involved, taking them to Cameron and making sure to show their love.
A “Safe Place” sign is posted outside Cameron Community Department.
Max Schulte / WXXI News
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“If the kids don’t get [love] at home, they will go elsewhere to get it. They will do. McKnight said, whether they find it on the street, whether they find it in a drugstore.
Across the street, a scuffle broke out. There were screams and physical threats. McKnight barely admits it. Around here, but not just here, violence and aggression have become as common as inclement weather.
Kaila Toppin says she’s seen more than enough of that in her entire life.
“It makes happy and fun, like sometimes it interrupts it. Like in my mind, you know?”, Toppin said. “I’m out there having a good time but sometimes it just makes me think something bad could happen, because all the bad things have happened. I don’t know, it does. give it a different and it also makes it a prudent pleasure.”
Toppin’s vigilance was a matter of survival. That’s what drives her to protect the younger children, so that they have a chance to experience life after childhood.
