Territorial Violence in the Western Addition

This past Tuesday, on November 13th, I finally had my site visit with my grantee! When I arrived at the Buchanan YMCA, I was greeted very warmly by all the youth leaders and their ally, which made me feel very comfortable from the start. During this meeting, the youth leaders were discussing their plans for their upcoming event on November 20. The air was filled with excitement as they began finalizing their program schedule. I was really happy to see them all engaged and eagerly contributing ideas because I could see how passionate they are in wanting to inform the public about the territorial violence in the Western Addition and ultimately preventing this violence from spreading to the future generations. By the end of meeting, the youth leaders were able to finalize everything for their event!

After their meeting, I was able to get to know one of the youth leaders, Ebony McKeever, a little better through her interview. She is a strong advocate for this project because she goes to school in the Western Addition area so she is constantly surrounded in the violence and crime. It saddens her to see that people with the same background and culture are fighting against each other so this motivated her to be a part of this project.

It was really nice being able to join these amazing youth leaders while they were in action! I can’t wait to attend their event on November 20^th. Are you also interested in learning about territorial violence in the Western Addition? Then be sure to go to the Buchanan YMCA located at 1530 Buchanan Street San Francisco, CA 94115! Their event is going to be amazing so don’t miss it!