Over the past years, we have seen an increase in youth crime and violence. The wanton disregard for human life and its related aftermath have crushed and saddened our community.

These events have prodded us to ask why. We need to begin to take action because we are highly cognizant of the roots from which these problems grow.

These problems are present in the data of previous studies and are the fruit that we reap from poverty, inequity in education, the lack of worthwhile character-building activities, and the effect that economics plays on the deterioration of the family and its subsequent teaching of core values.

In putting out a fire, one tends to seek the source and to extinguish it from its origin.

It is from this premise that we seek to talk to those whom the fire affects the most and to seek their input as to how this fire can best be extinguished. We want to encourage our youth to become proactive problem-solvers in seeking to change the tide of violence into streams of self-respect and love.

We propose to form the student nonviolence task force.

The chief aim will be to discuss the causes and problems inherent in youth violence by recognizing the sources of violent behavior and then formulating strategies and programs to educate the youth population of the city of Erie. We believe youth, our future citizens, are highly capable of recognizing problems they face and offering meaningful solutions to solve them.

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They met when they were 7 years old, their houses 10 minutes apart if they ran the whole way — both precocious and charismatic, both baseball fanatics, one a shortstop, the other a pitcher. Their friendship should have been simple.

But as much as they might have seemed it, they knew from the start that they were not the same: Ronald “Looney” Barron and Tommie “T-Top” Rivers were from different “neighborhoods”: two pockets of the city, one in Mid-Wilshire, one in West Adams, claimed by different gangs. As teenagers, they joined their respective gangs — Barron a Mansfield Hustler, Rivers a Geer Gang Crip. And, under the rules of the street, that was the end of the friendship.

It wasn’t the end, though, of their parallel lives. By 1990, both were serving time for violent, gang-related offenses. In the prison yard in Chino, they discovered common ground, once again.

Then for more than a decade, after their release, they were inseparable, working in tandem as gang interventionists for Amer-I-Can, the foundation started by football great Jim Brown — spreading the gospel of education, sobriety and family to youngsters from some of the toughest schools in the city. They were both 40. They started each day together, at the gym. When it was time to pick up Barron’s daughter from school, Rivers went too.

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Leticia Van de Putte – Special to the Express-News

Last month, Los Angeles City Council member Tony Cárdenas and I convened an intimate gathering of prominent Latino elected officials from throughout the country for the inaugural meeting of The Changing Face of America: A Latino Conversation on Juvenile Justice and Youth Intervention.

This historic forum was held in Los Angeles and was designed to provide lawmakers with a better understanding of youth delinquency by having candid conversations with juvenile justice policy experts, local law enforcement, private-sector advocates, and street-level intervention practitioners on effective legislative solutions to help significantly reduce youth violence in each of our respective communities.

According to a recent report released by the Campaign for Youth Justice, nearly 18,000 Latino youth are incarcerated on any given day in the United States. In Texas, minority youth are 39 percent more likely to be arrested than Anglo youth. Furthermore, the Texas Youth Commission has reported that in the last five years, nearly 5,000 Latino youth, mostly between the ages of 12 and 17, have been admitted into juvenile detention facilities, representing the largest ethnic population in our juvenile system.

Heavily investing in the incarceration of our youth in Texas has come with a hefty price tag for taxpayers. The Texas Youth Commission (TYC.) reported that in 2008, it cost nearly $300 per day per youth who was locked up in a juvenile detention center, with an even greater combined cost for those youth in contract facilities, halfway houses, and on parole supervision. As such, the Texas Youth Commission’s 2009 Operating Budget cost taxpayers approximately $223 million to house the 2,259 youth currently detained in their facilities. According to the authors of the California Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Bill, it only costs $1,200-$1,300 a year to keep one youth in a crime-intervention or prevention program.

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Over one million teens will hear intercom announcements tomorrow for National Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Break the Cycle (www.breakthecycle.org), a leading teen dating violence prevention organization, joins forces with Mary Kay Inc. (www.marykay.com) and schools across the country to make a National Announcement about teen dating abuse.

This February marks the inaugural Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. In celebration, Break the Cycle launched the Have a Heart Campaign (www.haveaheartcampaign.org) to bring national attention to this issue. Tomorrow, as part of the campaign, Break the Cycle will reach more than one million teens with a National Announcement, promoting education about teen dating abuse by reading a scripted message over the intercom.

“The rate of abuse in teen relationships is alarming and urgently calls for all of us to take action,” said Marjorie Gilberg, Executive Director of Break the Cycle. “The Have a Heart Campaign encourages teens to talk openly about this issue and hopefully, save lives as a result.”

With support from Mary Kay, the first 100 schools who registered for the National Announcement received a free copy of Break the Cycle’s innovative prevention program, Ending Violence, along with heart-shaped stickers so students can literally wear their hearts on their sleeves to raise awareness about the issue.

“Mary Kay has a long-standing commitment to ending domestic violence. We know that our partnership with Break the Cycle and the development of the Ending Violence DVD will have a tremendous impact in preventing teen dating violence and stopping the horrific cycle of domestic violence before it starts,” said Crayton Webb, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Mary Kay Inc. “The Ending Violence DVD makes essential information about healthy relationships easily accessible to teenagers and schools across the country.  We all can do our part by signing the online petition at http://www.enddatingviolence.com for legislation supporting the Ending Violence DVD and teen dating violence prevention programs in schools across the country.”

As part of the National Announcement, Break the Cycle has invited members of the United States Congress to make one-minute speeches from the House floor on the morning of February 10.

For more information about the Have a Heart Campaign or where you can go to hear the National Announcement, please visit www.haveaheartcampaign.org or www.breakthecycle.org.

About Break the Cycle

Break the Cycle believes everyone has the right to safe and healthy relationships. As the leading voice for teens on the issue of dating violence, Break the Cycle advocates for policy and legislative changes that will better protect the rights and promote the health of teens nationwide. Engaging, educating and empowering youth through prevention and intervention programs, Break the Cycle helps young people identify and build healthy relationships. For more information, please visit www.breakthecycle.org.

About Mary Kay

Mary Kay is one of the largest direct sellers of skin care and color cosmetics. In 2008 Mary Kay Inc. and its international subsidiaries achieved $2.6 billion in wholesale sales worldwide. Mary Kay® products are sold in more than 35 markets worldwide, and the global Mary Kay independent sales force exceeds 2 million. To learn more about Mary Kay, log on to www.marykay.com or call 1-800-MARY KAY (1-800-627-9529).