Columbia group aims to tackle causes leading to youth violence
COLUMBIA, Mo. KMIZ
Community leaders continue to work on reducing youth violence in Columbia. That starts with tackling the root causes.
Area nonprofit Destiny of H.O.P.E is a group that aims to reduce youth violence. The group's mission statement, according to its website, is to "help at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, and the community at large, to love, teach, and to guide them into fulfilling lives of promise; to give them hope and a future."
On Monday, 17-year-old Kendrick Lee Harris was charged as an adult in Boone County with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and tampering with a witness. One person in the probable cause statement alleged that Harris is “involved with the North gang.”
Police claim Harris also grew up around Sam Baldwin, someone they say was involved in that group and was killed in a shooting in Boone County earlier this year.
“Gang activity is not something that people wake up to and participate in and there is a misconception about how these things occur,” Lonnie Lockhart Bey, the Executive Director at Destiny of H.O.P.E told ABC 17 News. “Much of the problem begins at home. And if not at home, the people surrounding the child.”
Last week, the Columbia City Council approved five American Rescue Plan Act contracts. One of the contracts was with Destiny of H.O.P.E, which received $320,000 to help address community violence.
Lockhart Bey spent 26-and-a-half years incarcerated. During that time, he received diplomas in small business management, real estate law specialty and paralegal studies from Ashworth University through a professional career development program. He believes his experience can help make a positive impact on Columbia’s youth.
“Many of these children living in these impoverished areas are being lumped together and that’s not the case," Lockhart Bey said. "This is something that must be addressed by those who understand it. Destiny of H.O.P.E. has taken on that charge because we have a vested interest in the youth.”
According to previous reporting, Destiny of H.O.P.E provides a Critical Change Gang Prevention program to address core issues of gang affiliation, trauma prevention, and restorative justice; a Youth Mentorship Program to encourage workforce development skills; a Drop-In and Locational Mentoring and Opportunity Center to provide a safe place for mentoring and other activities; a Community and Prisoner Reentry Education program to provide peer to peer mentoring for those justice-impacted; and family therapy to those who are justice impacted.
“Whether that be parenting, whether that be food insecurity, whether that be housing insecurity all of these elements are big contributors to what ultimately becomes an attachment to the streets,” Lockhart Bey said.
On top of providing after-school programs and educational courses, Destiny of H.O.P.E is also planning to launch a podcast in order to raise more awareness.
“In the state of Missouri, children are certified at the age of 12 if the crime permits,” Lockhart Bey said. “I’m not here to defend crime on any level. What I am here to defend are young people who are misguided by their environment. By the socioeconomic impoverishment that somehow has engrossed the people who are raising these children.”
Youth violence has been on the rise across the United States.
A study published in the Journal of Surgical Research found that gunshot injuries surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of childhood death in 2020. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of children and teens killed by gunshots had risen 50% from 2019 to 2021.
“This is a collaborative effort on all sides. This is something that we need parents engaged in. We need children who are not a part of that not to be afraid and also get engaged," Lockhart Bey said. "The greatest influence on any person, any human being is their peers.”
Lockhart Bey added that Destiny of H.O.P.E is working to make a long-term impact on the community.
“These young people will one day be sitting in these councils. Whether it’s the City Council or running for office, whatever it is they’re seeking to do. Whether they are simply handing medicine out to older people. It’s important that they know how to read, they know how to write they know how to count. We have a vested interest in these people because this is the future,” he said.
