Under the beating sun at Corpening Plaza in Winston-Salem, Saturday morning, community organizers with the “How Are The Children?” campaign spent more than 15 minutes reading aloud the names of city residents who died in recent years due to violence.
The first names on the list: 17-year-old Erubey Romero Medina and 16-year-old Daniel Jiminez Millian. They died last week after a fight escalated into a shooting with multiple victims at Leinbach Park.
Shantae Graham, the founder of Full Circle Mentoring and an organizer with the initiative, warned the hundreds of attendees gathered around her that the list of names would only grow longer without immediate action.
“Instead of writing graduation speeches, we will be writing eulogies,” she said. “We'll be trying to figure out how to get money to bury our babies.”
The “How Are the Children?” initiative was created by Action4Equity and Thriving Together Forsyth, but is a call to action to the entire community to better support young people.
Organizers say that involves addressing systemic barriers, providing apprenticeships and mentorship programs, fully staffing schools, investing in mental health support and more. A series of evening activities for youth and their families, called “Summer After Dark,” is also in the works.
Mike Presnell, who leads the Youth Empowerment Program at Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County, is helping with that effort. He says the goal is to give young people safe, healthy activities on Friday and Saturday nights.
“A lot of the kids that we talk to that find themselves in these uncomfortable places, places where not healthy things are happening, don't necessarily want to be there," Presnell said. "But in that social drive, it's where they find themselves. So we want to give them an alternative to that.”
He says they’re looking for partners who are already providing great programs, to deliver them “after dark” on occasion. The goal is to have multiple different events happening each night, like cooking classes or creative writing groups.
“So that young people have choice. They can find something that excites them, and they can go get engaged in that,” Presnell said.
Lucia Brisbane with Action4Equity said the next time someone asks, "How are the children?" she hopes the answer will be: “They’re thriving, because we showed up.”
“If we invest in their mental health, their education, their stability, then maybe, just maybe, we won't have to gather for vigils. We won't have to release balloons, and we won't have to ask what went wrong,” Brisbane said. “Instead, we'll be celebrating what went right.”
After several speakers and youth dance performances, the crowd began to march through downtown Winston-Salem.
The first half of the march was silent. The signs attendees held, which were made by children, spoke loudly enough. They read: “Invest in the future,” “Youth voices matter,” and “We deserve to thrive.”
On the way back toward the Plaza, the drum line picked up, and attendees began to chant: “If we heal our youth, we heal our future.”
