- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- Please join me for a conversation on the troubling rise of gun violence and crime among Charlotte's youth.

We sit down with those in the community who are actively working to stop this trend.

Carolina Impact, Seeking Unity special starts now.

- [Announcer] PBS Charlotte presents a special Carolina Impact, Seeking Unity.

(gentle music) - Good evening, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Dara Khaalid, and welcome to our special Carolina Impact, Seeking Unity.

Former president John F. Kennedy once said, the future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth.

And here in Charlotte, many are concerned about what that future is as reports of crime and gun violence are increasing among juveniles.

The latest statistics from Charlotte Mecklenburg Police show that shootings involving young people rose 32% in 2023 compared to the same time in the previous year.

Officials say other crimes like car thefts have been a serious problem too, but there are people in the community who are working every day to be a positive role model for the youth and even provide environments that keep them away from trouble.

Some of them are here with me tonight.

Let me introduce you to our panel, starting with Greg Jackson, founder and executive director of Heal Charlotte, a nonprofit that strives to end youth violence by mentoring students at school and providing resources that lead to housing and financial stability.

Next, detective Michael Wynn with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department.

He's a part of their youth engagement unit that works with young people leading them along the right path.

We also have Shannon Klu, a local mother of three, who's an advocate for keeping juveniles safe.

She also serves as the Charlotte Chapter President of Moms Demand Action.

Lastly, Kevin Anderson, a Charlotte teen.

And now with this conversation being focused on the youth, we believed it was vital to have a young person here to share their perspective on what's happening amongst their age group.

Now, Kevin has gone through a lot of hardships in his life, but with the help of Heal Charlotte, he's in a much better place and he's getting assistance from mentors like Greg Jackson as he searches for a job.

Now we're gonna begin with the first question, and that question is why?

What is the root cause for the crime that we're seeing and the gun violence and each of your opinion that we're seeing here in Charlotte?

- Well, I'd say, you know, thanks for having me here first of all.

- Yeah, thank you for being here.

- I do work in the community to reduce child gun deaths, and one of the things we are seeing is there's more guns in the community.

And so one of the things I like to do is we go out in the community and really educate adults about how to secure weapons in their homes and in cars so we can keep them out of the hands of our youth.

- Yeah, and I'll add to that, and thanks for having us on too.

But I would say the city is a little more reactive than proactive.

We have a lot of people that have moved into this city.

I'm a transplant myself, but I don't think we could expect this type of reaction to us having a lot of people in the population now.

So just a fast growing city and then being reactive instead of proactive to some of the negative things that will come to being an overgrown city.

And you know, that has played in a lot of, a lot of decision making that has happened moving forward.

So I think if we can just kind of get programming around how many people are moving here in the next year and kind of figure those numbers out and then prepare ourselves for what can come, negative and positive, and then being transparent with those things, we'll be able to combat gun violence a lot faster also.

- Yeah, and I agree with you with the city's growing and my thing is, is I think that if we can just focus on keeping the young folks busy.

If somehow we have programmed the community school, whatever it may be.

Due to covid, a lot of kids didn't go to school, but following that trend, we just gotta find a way to keep kids, young folks busy.

The idle time is when they get in trouble.

So we just go with that.

- Well, I feel like it starts because peer pressure and then it becomes a habit because the peers get them into it.

And then they instantly just keep on going and going and going and they get older and teach the younger kids to do all the bad things that they've been doing their whole life.

- And so Greg, I wanna switch over to you a little bit.

So your organization does a lot with the youth.

So how can we as a society fix this issue?

We all talked about what the root cause is that we believe, but how can we fix this and how are you guys making things better right here in our community?

- Yeah, I mean first off, we take a holistic perspective to everything that we do, right?

We don't believe there's one thing that triggers the gun violence.

You know, being in westernized civilization, the institutes, that was institutions that was built off of that, right?

And the theology that comes with that.

And then also knowing that we're in a society where kids don't have economic mobility, where they're, we're in a society where they're looking for money and how to feed their families, how to take care of themselves, how to buy the newest gear for school.

You know, how to impress that young lady when you're in high school.

And they don't have opportunities to that, to economic growth.

And that affects a lot of decision making that they make outside in the streets.

So we like to incentivize our programs for the youth.

Last year we partnered with a couple of other businesses out here, Family Matters Printing, shout out to Samir over there.

We had some kids in Martin Luther King Middle School that was able to come up with some messaging that represented gun violence prevention, conflict resolution, stopping the violence.

And we took that messaging, we digitized the art that they came up with and we put it on garments and we sold those garments.

And at the end of the year, all of the kids in the program received a check.

And that just gave them more incentive to come back and look for Coach Greg, look for Miss O, all of the people that are part of the program, but meeting these kids where they are.

Not screaming at them and telling them what's wrong with them, but just seeing what's the real need and then addressing that need and then not talking ourselves to death, actually doing something.

- Anyone else like to add to that?

Greg talked about a lot of the initiatives that they're doing, but would you like to throw anything in there?

- Right, so when it comes to the gun violence in our community with our youth, a child can't go buy a gun.

So then you gotta ask where are they getting the guns right?

And so those are coming out of the homes of their family members or their friends.

And so, you know, we really encourage adults that are gun owners just to keep their guns secure.

That means locking it up in your home, locking it in your car.

Especially in Charlotte, we've got a really bad problem with guns being stolen from cars, and that's how they're getting out into the community, into the hands of the wrong people, right?

And so children really need to be supervised.

We need to model responsible behavior around gun ownership.

Always keep them locked, unloaded, and separate from the ammunition so that they don't get unsupervised access.

- This one is for you detective.

So what age should we start reaching out to the youth and making sure that we're being hands-on with them?

I know that you do a lot of work with the youth engagement unit, so talk a little bit about that.

What age should we start?

- Well, I focus on 13 to 17.

The program that we run is called the community engagement called REACH, R-E-A-C-H. And like Greg was talking about, it's just allow the kids exposure, good or bad.

You know, I go around and have an opportunity for, so going back what I was saying about REACH.

It stands for respect, engagement, accountability, character, and honesty.

Going back to having that mindset where you can make decision on your own without that pressure you're talking about.

So my thing is, is how do we teach young folks in a way that can make good decision?

I have philosophy saying that, you know, you heard, show me your friends and I'll show you your future mentality.

So sometimes the kids make good decision by themself, but when they get together, for some reason common sense go out the door.

So we allow them the opportunity to make good decisions, teach 'em about that leadership skill.

Again, going back to what you're saying, those exposure, exposure, exposure.

Some of these young folks that they, that they have no idea that that little circle they in, and they think that's normal.

It's not normal to do what you do.

- And so when we think about exposure, that could mean them going on, you know, a trip to a different state even.

Or just getting out of their environment to see what the world has to offer.

- And you're 100% correct.

When I say exposure, let me elaborate on that.

A simple thing is take the kids, a group of kids to downtown Charlotte.

They live here, they don't even see Charlotte, right?

Crowders Mountain's 45 minutes away from here, take 'em to the mountain and show them things.

And I get it, some of these kids, there's the opportunity financially, but we can do things without it.

And the REACH program in a way was that the support.

It grew from one week.

Now we do seven weeks of the program during summertime.

So now that we show the work, the financial gotta be there 'cause we feed these kids too.

So we gotta make sure to have the money to take 'em to the Civil Rights Museum, to take 'em to a place that costs money.

But that's why I love what I do.

I've been in this job for 27 years and you know, part of police, the easy part is arrest people, right?

Or basically serve, enforce the law.

But there's more to police than that.

It's to help, help the young folks get away from that, show 'em a different path.

Yeah.

And in my career it's like, you know, I've done a lot, but putting people in prison is one thing.

That's the easy part.

It's helping the kids I come up to.

Hey, Detective Wynn.

Remember me?

I was in your program and this is what I do now.

That brings so much joy to a lot officer, believe it or not.

- Yeah, if I could add on to what he's saying.

Last year we took 77 kids to Camp Thunderbird for a weekend retreat just to get away and have a mental health break, you know?

And see how these kids operate outside of their environment, where they're surrounded by poverty, they're surrounded by people that are operating in a survivor mentality.

And you'd be amazed what these kids come up with in a weekend.

Projects that they want to do, you know, future businesses that they want to open.

You know, we had some kids shoot a whole music video there in a matter of a day right.

But just to see them be children, 'cause they're in such of a adult environment all the time.

And the kids that we're talking about don't have that opportunity.

So like he's saying, just that exposure to Camp Thunderbird for a weekend, now it just entices them to wanna find out about Camp Thunderbird.

How do I go every week?

And then they meet new friends, you know, for that summer and then just get exposed to a different life of what they call normalcy.

We convince 'em that it's not normal what you're going through at all.

Yeah, so exposure.

- And how do you feel inside when you see those kids, their faces light up when they're getting out of their communities or they're seeing something new, or maybe it's a new animal or a new person that they're meeting.

How does that make you feel, Greg?

You do a lot in the community.

- Yeah, I mean, sparking a seed within a child, you know, you don't know when that flower is gonna bloom and grow.

But to know, I talked to Kevin about this a lot, just to know that you have a page in somebody's chapter, you know, maybe a chapter in somebody's book, and it's a positive influence that can change the rest, the rest of their lives.

We heal ourselves by healing each other.

You know it's not, it's I'm not, I'm in need of as much healing as anybody else in the city.

So as much as I serve, I get that, I get reciprocated.

I get that energy right back.

So, it feels very good to know that you're being a positive influence in a young person's life that can be a change agent.

- To go along with what Detective Wynn was saying.

I mean, it is important to get these kids out and show them something different.

But I think think it's also important if we can, you know, re-engineer our own communities to make them safer so that Kevin feels safe in his neighborhood.

And you know, one of the ways we can do that is through, well actually Heal Charlotte this year was a recipient of a grant from every town for gun safety.

And it was for crime prevention through environmental design.

So those programs are fantastic where they re-engineer the spaces that we live in, in our communities to make them safer.

So an example would be like taking like an empty vacant lot and turning it into a park.

And I'll let Greg talk about the work that he did with Heal Charlotte with that money.

- Yeah, we're working outta Martin Luther King Middle School, still are to this day.

And we were able to continue a project of a community garden.

And to beautify that garden and, you know, add some greens to that garden.

We had CMPD come help, my board came and helped.

Moms Demand action was there.

It was a great initiative that was around the time of, what was it, Gun Violence Prevention Month.

And we were able to put that, and it's still active to this day and the school has put it in part of the curriculum for kids to go out during the day and just have a mental health break and play around in a garden.

So it's a wonderful refuge right now for the kids in the community that don't have a lot of positive places to go to and just convene.

- A little bit of beauty.

- Keep them busy.

- Keep 'em busy with beauty.

- Yes, yes.

- I'd like to add too 'cause I would never have found like my hobbies or passions if I never went outside my environment.

Because I really have a passion for like cinematography.

I love seeing scenery, taking pictures of it.

And like I would have never, and I mean never found out that like I had that in me if I never went outside my community.

- Wow.

- Thank you for that Kevin.

And so Shannon, for you as a mother of three and you have a middle schooler, so what are parents saying?

We've talked a lot about, you know, we are all community members here, but what are you hearing from parent groups?

- So parents are concerned about guns in the community and you know I see it from, it's, you know when somebody becomes a parent and they've got, you know, an infant, they immediately start focusing on that kid's gonna be in school.

I'm concerned about guns in schools or in the community.

And so I think that's when a lot of people kind of wake up.

But, you know, one of the things that I think is fantastic about this conversation here is that you can't solve a problem until you acknowledge it right.

And you have build awareness.

So like what we're having today, this conversation about awareness of the gun violence in our community is so important.

And I think that that has really grown in the last few years.

And more and more people are really waking up and seeing that this is a problem and coming on board to try to look for solutions.

And so you're seeing solutions in all different corners, which is fantastic.

So there's not, you know, one solution, but I think people are finding lots of different ways to address it and hopefully we can, you know, bring gun deaths down among our youth community.

- And can you think of a solution or anything that your organization or even just you as a mom, anything you're instilling in your children?

- Exactly, so as a mom you need to talk about it.

So when your children are gonna be in someone else's house, if they're going to a friend's house, if they're going to a relative's house, grandma, whatever, to have those conversations about guns in the home.

Like do you have a gun in the home?

Is it secured?

Especially around the holidays, you know, if kids can find where you've hidden the packages and the presents, they're gonna find a gun.

So kids are curious, right?

So we need to just have those conversations with each other and kind of hold each other account accountable and say well, you know, I'd like to make sure that that gun is secured before my child comes over and is gonna be in your home.

- And something that I'm thinking about now as we turn to you Kevin, we talked about peer pressure.

So for you, the youngest person here at our panel, talk a little bit about the reality of what people in your age group are facing, peer pressure, anything else, what are you guys experiencing right now?

- I wouldn't say right now, but I feel like most of it started in like, like early middle school when I was like 12.

That's when I started seeing like Juuls and vapes and people smoking mostly at school and everything.

And people thought it was cool because you know, all the cool people are doing it, the people you see that you think are cool.

So you start joining in with them and getting with the wrong crowd and then becomes, you know, like a cycle and a habit for you and you do it and you get addicted.

And then now since we're getting older, I see people like crashing cars and stealing things and posting it on social media thinking that it's all cool and stuff.

I really feel like it's really affecting us.

- And so for you all, when you hear those things, what comes to your mind in terms of how we can reach that generation and try to strengthen them to move away from peer pressure?

I know it's something every generation has to face, but what can we tell our youth now?

- Well what, I'm sorry.

- No go ahead.

- One other thing that you brought up, an excellent point is that peer pressure, but what drive that is that social media.

If you ask kids today, would you rather get your phone taken away or get a spanking?

I guarantee you 90% of them say they'd rather get a spanking than the phone taken away.

It's so addictive.

- I'll take the spanking too.

- Oh you'd take a spanking too?

- I'd be taking the spanking too.

- So that's the whole thing.

So they look at the social media, they think that's what the real life is about.

With a gun, with all these things, that's all fake.

So I'm so blessed to have an opportunity that the school invite me to, I teach a program called Cops Care, and I teach 'em about deescalation, how to escalate and understand when you deal with police officer in that manner, but teach 'em in a way with your friends that peer pressure, you are not determined by your how many likes.

That's not your value.

So we gotta get the kids to start thinking that way, but also see through their lens.

The pressure that the kids have these days is phenomenal because they think that's what its about.

So we gotta get in their level to understand what is their needs.

It's okay, I'm 54 years old to thinking, that's how I do when I was young.

Oh, I didn't have a phone when I was growing up.

So you gotta look at their level and understand, but also help parents out.

A lot of these parents are running around with a lot of kids and putting food on the table.

They don't have that energy.

So it take a lot of people to help somebody out.

And that's why, you know, I love doing what I do because I have the passion because I want young people to be successful.

But you gotta give them a right choice for them to make that choice when they need to make that choice.

- Yeah.

- Greg.

- Yeah, I speak to the kids about integrity, doing the right thing when nobody is looking and I make sure that we put that on them and we force that on them that that's a way of their life.

It's one of my four core values.

We talk about their passions, the things that they're excited about, the things that get them going in the morning.

One of those things, or two of those things will lead them into their purpose.

And that's my goal is for them to be able to get to their purpose in life, you know, why God created them.

And then build a legacy.

Attach yourself to a legacy that is going good or build a new one for your family.

You know, whether you're gonna be first time going to college in your school, in your family or not right.

Just all of those things that I put into them, hopefully that they, you know, they take it outside of school.

And then transitioning from just being after school to being in school also, and creating a different culture inside of the school.

I've had the opportunity of doing that at Whitewater Middle School with helping some kids that are quote unquote at risk to getting in trouble and in school suspensions and all of that stuff.

And just working with them and being inside of the school just helps change the culture during the school day.

And then enticing them to do extracurricular activities when they leave me.

You know, get into the sports, get into the robotics, get into whatever it is that, you know, you want to get into, just get into that.

You don't need me after school.

I want to be here during school to help them with their grades and stuff like that.

And then of course, exposure to people that look like them that are successful, you know, for them to see positive men that are successful in their community is a major staple to our program.

Having the people like Anthony Morrow, you know, West Boulevard legend that made it into the NBA from where he is from, to come back to the community and inspire young kids.

Seeing people at the highest success level in their profession and then allowing them to come.

Chief Jennings coming to speak to my kids at Martin Luther King Middle School.

You know, just to have a gun, a conversation about gun violence right, with them and preparing the kids for that.

And then we're starting at the middle school level now, you know, 12, 13, 14, and then going into high school.

So those are some of the things that we instill in them and making sure that they always have incentivized programs.

You know, I'm gonna help you make some money because we know that poverty is the reason why these kids are making the decisions that we're making.

And that speaks to another thing that needs to happen on another tier.

You know, policy and advocacy needs to happen in the community for respectable gun laws that are gonna make us a safe community.

And then we need something on the mid tier to happen with organizations that are having a lot of, they have a lot of money in their budget, right.

And can support smaller organizations right.

And then we need the grassroots organizations to be sustained on a whole nother level.

So where programming can exist past one year, you know so.

But those are the things that we're giving to the kids right now.

- Kevin, I hope this is inspiring you to hear adults say these things.

And can you think of anything else that adults can do to help your age group or anything that you can do as a young person to inspire others your age?

- Well, I feel like they give a perfect example.

They're giving the kids time.

See, a lot of people have, like parents have multiple kids, can't give all the kids an equal amount of time.

So I feel like if other adults in the community come together and give them like, you know, some attention, I'm not saying like they need attention, I'm just saying like, give them time and care and show 'em that they're there for them.

Especially with social media, like mental health is a big problem.

- Yep, yep.

- And detective I'm thinking about you on this next question, but what does it mean to you knowing that you get to meet people like Kevin every day, the young people, inspire them.

You're going into classrooms, you're going into communities, and as being a member of law enforcement, what does that mean for you making an impact like that?

- Well, I'm very blessed in that way because law enforcement's a tough job, right?

So the only time people need police officers is when they stress out.

So it gimme an opportunity to see kids when I'm here for you.

For example, with a Christmas toy drive coming up, I'm excited about that.

We are collecting toys to give out kids.

This one time they see a police officer in a positive way, right?

And interact with them.

But like you said, kids, they know if you truly care about them.

So don't just show up, truly invest in the time.

And if you rely on the police, we're a small part.

We need the whole community, we everybody to step in to help those parents who have four or five kids or whatever, right?

So I love the fact that we have young folks like him because I need him to be a leader, you know, come and be a leader to help.

Because one thing for me, it's easy to say oh you're adult, you say it over and over.

But to have somebody who vouch for you, that matters.

- And so I know that each of you here, when we think about the future that you'd like to see in Charlotte, what does that look like for you, Shannon?

- Well, you know, guns is the number one cause of death of children in the United States today.

And that doesn't have to be that way.

It's preventable.

I would love to see for our children to grow up in a community where there isn't gun violence, where they're not scared to be in a shopping mall or in a school because they're worried about gun violence in their community.

Where they can just be kids and enjoy life as a kid.

- So as we wrap up here, Greg, this one is for you, and anyone else who'd like to add anything else, but what is your greatest need right now as an organization?

- Yeah, greatest need.

First, always treasure.

We always need donations to come into the organization.

Always need, you know, philanthropic institutions and banking institutions to partner with us so we have sustainable programming.

And then also buildings and apartment complexes is a need.

We have a homelessness problem in Charlotte that is overwhelming.

And a lot of our children that are experiencing a lot of violent behavior and street tactics right, and activity, are suffering from homelessness, living in hotels, you know, not having anywhere to go and looking for the next meal.

So commercial real estate and real estate is always a need.

And then I would like to make a call out for young African American men to be more involved in the community and in these kids' lives.

It's important that these children see people that look like them that can throw on a suit, but can also put a hoodie on and some jays and come in the classroom and talk to them.

It's important for these young kids to see success, that's tangible, that they can grab and they can hold on to.

And then I would love to see a lot more policy changing, a lot more advocacy at the General Assembly for us to have a safer community.

We have a Safer Communities Act that was launched last year, nationally, and Charlotte did not apply.

Other cities in this state were able to receive funds for that.

But I would love to see us take advantage of all of the dollars that are out here nationally to be able to have a safer community and really invest in that as a city.

- Alright Greg, well thank you so much for sharing that.

And thank you to each and every one of you for joining me tonight and sharing your opinions on how we can make this community better.

It takes each person and we're gonna reach our youth.

And I thank you all again.

And for those of you at home, thank you all again for joining us as well for this special Carolina Impact, Seeking Unity.

Goodnight.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.

(gentle music)