Seeking real change through Real Talk

It was like vacation Bible school, except instead of making a birdhouse, they were making young men more aware of the world around them. And instead of Sunday school teachers running the show, it was three police officers with guns in their holsters.

The weeklong program, called Real Talk, came about because of a shooting in February involving three teens. A 15-year-old was shot to death, and a 19-year-old and a 14-year-old were arrested. The officers — Helen Irby, Deputy Chief Shirley Warrior and Lt. Hosea Thompson — decided then that they had to do something to intervene.

It goes without saying that the greatest sympathy goes to the family of the 15-year-old. But the two others, to be involved in something so heinous as that boy’s death, well, those families are also hurting to see that their children have ruined their lives in such short order.

Twenty-five boys, ranging in age from 12 to 16, were invited to attend. As one officer said, the boys were not identified necessarily because they were at risk. More important was the fact that boys this age are at crossroads between a lot of good and bad things, but mainly the bad thing of gangs.

That’s one of the reasons the day camp was geared toward boys only. Girls, the officers said, have their own struggles, but the gang culture is not geared toward them in the same way it’s geared toward boys.

Speaker after speaker talked to them during the week’s event, which was graciously hosted by Bethany Chapel Missionary Baptist Church on Olive Street. Some of the speakers talked about such things as anger management, conflict resolution, being a leader and enhancing relationships with parents, friends and teachers.

There was also a bit of exposing the young men to the horrors of crime that reminded us of the old Scared Straight! series. In one segment, a casket was used. And in another, a funeral home director was scheduled to talk about what happens after violent crimes. As Warrior said, the focus was to keep the programming real.

Kudos to the officers for creating the program and to the speakers who put out the effort to maybe make a difference. We can imagine that, in their world, they are all happy to give freely of their time to get in front of these young men now in exchange for never running into them again — outside of watching them grow up to be productive citizens who stay far, far away from violence and criminal activity.

And perhaps what these attendees picked up will be spread in such a way that the weeklong efforts will be multiplied many times over.