Bryce Huffman here, Engagement Editor for BridgeDetroit.
So much of young people’s lives, such as where they live or where they go to school, is based on decisions made by adults.
But how can adults make the best decisions for younger generations if they never hear from them directly?
BridgeDetroit wants to ensure that those often difficult conversations are happening.
As a step toward this effort, our newsroom hosted a Youth Public Safety Town Hall Tuesday at the Detroit Public Library’s Main Branch and facilitated some great conversations with Detroit youth, their parents and community members.
The discussion focused on the experiences of Detroit kids when it comes to their safety at school, at home, in their neighborhood and on the internet.
Ineffective school security, mental health wellness and violence among peers were some of the common threads in the conversations between attendees.
We heard from a range of students, as young as 4th grade, who haven’t dealt with the pressure of their teenage years yet, all the way up to seniors in high school who are planning for college. There were also a handful of parents and adults who provided insights.
So there was some difference in how attendees view public safety, whether that be physical safety or how safe they feel internally. But overall, the discussion had several points of agreement between the attendees, regardless of age.
Safety at school, home and online
A group of about a dozen students joined by about eight adults said Tuesday that they wished there was more security on their school campuses and most said what they do see isn’t very effective. Mental wellness also rose to the top as a priority during the discussion co-facilitated by the library and members of the youth advisory council for the Board of Police Commissioners. Most participants said violence among peers first began in their freshman year of high school.
Despite school shootings across the nation and near to home in Oxford dominating the news cycle for the past 15 years, Tuesday’s attendees told BridgeDetroit that they didn’t feel any less safe going to school because of them.
Much of what we heard about safety boils down to this: Detroit kids feel more safe when they have adults who they trust and can talk to nearby.
Another common throughline is that people feel most comfortable and safe in their homes and neighborhoods when they know their neighbors. Having some familiarity with the people in the community is how some people feel safe in the city, despite the gun violence often associated with Detroit’s neighborhoods.
Beyond just knowing who their neighbors are, the students and their caregivers said they feel more safe when they are actively engaged in their neighborhood.
Know what you want and how to ask for it
One of the more energetic moments of the evening came when guest speaker Onjila Odeneal spoke about her experiences growing up during the 80s and 90s in the city.
Odeneal is a native Detroiter who leads state policy efforts on higher education access, affordability, and success in Michigan for the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). Odeneal formerly worked as the deputy director and acting executive director for the Detroit College Access Network.
She talked with the young folks in the room about their dreams and how they can advocate for themselves and their peers.
Students who participated Tuesday shared with Odeneal a range of aspirations from becoming an astronaut to a dance studio operator, professional football player, Navy and corporate pilot, pediatrician and cosmetologist and a world traveler.
“Who you become and where you go is up to you,” she said. “Consistently tell yourself that is what you are going to be. Tell yourself that you are capable.”
Odeneal told the students that she grew up in a rough neighborhood near Puritan and Dexter, regularly witnessing car bombings, shootings and other crimes.
“When I was a freshman in college somebody was killed in front of my house while I was working on a 10-page paper. These are some of the exposures that I had as early as elementary school,” she said.
The students were asked if they could recall the first time in their lives that they ever felt unsafe. For Odeneal, that feeling came at a very young age.
“I have real incidents that stick with me, but they were also the motivators to get to where I am now,” she said.
The first-generation college graduate told the youth that she decided in third grade that she wouldn’t end up on Puritan, as her family has for generations.
“Regardless of what you’re experiencing, who you become and where you go is up to you,” she said. “You can sit in a space and say, ‘oh well, this is going to be me.’ Or you can sit in a space and say, ‘I have to evolve beyond this.’ And that is my message to you guys today in having this conversation.”
This event builds off of a youth convening BridgeDetroit held last year and is among several hosted by our nonprofit newsroom this year to engage Detroiters on issues affecting their lives and communities.
One of my priorities as Engagement Editor is figuring out more ways to interact with middle and high school students in the city because they are the future. I want to make sure that we adults and the children are prepared for it.
If you have any thoughts, please reach out and let us know if you represent a group that would like to sit down with us to continue the dialogue on this important topic.
