Aqeela Sherrills

Every time we'd die or go to prison, no one was there to provide direction and guidance for our kids.

You see, violence is about proximity.

I had known most of my so-called enemies my entire life, from school and from the neighborhood.

A small group of us went into so-called enemy territory.

The news of the peace treaty spread like wildfires.

Hundreds of youth,

from formerly warring gangs, attended celebrations and the projects that marked the new beginning.

The peace treaty inspired similar agreements across the country and lasted for 12 years.

Fast forward into today, the cycle of violence remains an extremely concentrated problem with unequal impacts.

Residents in low-income urban communities of color are 15 times more likely to be harmed by violence, but yet three times less likely to get help.

And for black males ages 14 to 25, violence is the number one cause of death.

As this crisis has worsened in cities, overwhelmed police departments are joining forces with community leaders to say,

that arrests alone will not end the cycle of violence.

Many solutions are being proposed, but what we're proposing is an internal solution, a solution led by those most impacted by violence, a solution that lifts up nontraditional leaders to play a key role in creating safety in their own respective communities.

You see, investing in nontraditional leaders as a complement to policing

works.

In 2014, I got a call from my friend Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

Mayor Baraka asked me to help him to strengthen his community violence intervention strategy.

Now, Newark had been on the top 10 most violent city lists for almost 50 consecutive years.

With a modest investment from local philanthropies, I launched the Newark Community Street Team.