WordsNotWeapons.org

As we chronicle here at the Kid Shootings blog, violence against children, by other children, is all too common. It is incredibly easy for teens and young children to get their hands on guns and other weapons due to their widespread ownership and lack of safe storage.  And minors typically have not learned enough life lessons or developed significant self control to keep from acting out violently when things do not go their way.  These two characteristics, when combined, can lead to tragic results.

Recently, the legal guardian of one young shooting victim, Tiana Montgomery (whose passing was posted on our site), started an important website, called Words Not Weapons, which is dedicated to Tiana's memory.  Instead of only lamenting Tiana's passing and pulling away from society, which is all-too-easy to do when you suffer the pain of a lost loved one, she instead focused her family's grief on making a positive change to help keep it from happening to others.

From the mission statement of the site:

We are a non-profit organization dedicated to giving teens words,a substitute for weapons, when dealing with confrontal situations.

We will be holding "Words Not Weapons" workshops in middle and high schools throughout the year.  Educating our youth of the consequences and the effects felt by their communities when guns are used to resolve conflict.  We will address the life decisions and factors that contribute to violent events and introduce alternative behaviors and redirect thinking toward a more positive path.  We want to prepare our children now and of the next generation, the use-less-ness of weapons as communication.

The site also lists help lines for those in crisis.

I urge you to visit the site and find ways to help.

Violence is never a good option.  Peace and nonviolence start with ourselves, then must first extend to our own families, then to our community.  Together we can find ways toward a peaceful solution, and teach this to our children.

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Support the Children's Defense Fund

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for over 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority.


www.childrensdefense.org

Life Camp Inc., helping reduce violence and helping grieving parents

LIFE Camp incorporates best practices in youth violence prevention and intervention and develops teens and young adults into peer leaders.

This is the moto of a wonderful program in New York, Life Camp Inc., which works to reduce youth violence.

Recently, the organization and its founder, Erica Ford, were featured in a New Yorker of the Week article. Please visit the link.

Through Life Camp Inc., an organization that promotes positive alternatives to violence, mothers get together a least once a year. The organization's founder, Erica Ford, says events like healing dinners helps them move forward with their lives.

"Give them a vehicle to heal. Give them a vehicle to forgive. Give them a vehicle to move on with the things they want to do in their life,” says Ford.

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Part of the healing process for these mothers is making sure others never have to suffer the same pain.

"To encourage them, to let them know there is still hope, and we can do a lot when we come together as mothers to stop the violence," says Jennifer Freeman.

When a child is shot and killed, it isn't just the child that is the victim. It is also the family and friends of the child, and everyone they know, too, who are affected. Multiple lives are shattered, and it radiates out through the community. We need more organizations like this one to reduce the violence and to help those who have suffered it.

We urge readers to visit this organization, and to check out the article and accompanying video.