 |
||
|
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
December 2011 > Events
UC Berkeley Education Issues Forum
Documentary, Panel Offer Insights and Hope on Curbing Violence
Professors Susan Stone and Jabari Mahiri A CeaseFire member in a scene from the film Producer Alex Kotlowitz and principal Ron Smith, left
A total of 180 UC Berkeley scholars, students and community activists filled The Goldman Theater at Berkeley's David Brower Center in September, offering fresh perspectives and measured hope on ways to blunt violence in local communities. The UC Berkeley Education Issues Forum was co-sponsored by UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, Graduate School of Journalism, School of Public Health and School of Social Welfare, and featured best-selling author-turned-producer Alex Kotlowitz, and his award-winning film, "The Interrupters."
The panel discussion centered on strategies depicted in the newly released documentary. Panelists also included Jabari Mahiri, a professor at the Graduate School of Education (GSE); Ron Smith, a graduate of GSE's Principal Leadership Institute and principal of West Oakland Middle School; Emily Ozer, an associate professor at the School of Public Health; and Susan Stone, an associate professor at the School of Social Welfare. Cynthia Gorney, a professor at the School of Journalism and a working journalist, moderated the panel.
The Interrupters tells the story of three of 120 self-described "violence interrupters" who work through a Chicago-based group, called CeaseFire: The Campaign to Stop the Shooting, to try to protect their communities from the violence they themselves once employed. CeaseFire began in 2000 in West Garfield Park, one of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods, and the group reports that it reduced shootings by 67 percent in its first year.
Part of CeaseFire's success, said Kotlowitz, is that they view violence as a disease and a public health issue. "That takes morality out of the equation," Kotlowitz said, before showing two moving clips from the documentary. "There's no longer good and bad people. It makes it easier to grapple with the actors."
The film focuses on three individuals, all reformed gang members, who insert themselves into situations likely to explode into violence, such as gang retaliation. The Interrupters become highly involved, going to the homes and funerals of people they're working with -- even visiting them when they are incarcerated.
Mahiri, who was raised in the same tough Chicago neighborhoods as the youth depicted in the film, contrasted it with his own upbringing. "People had fights and disagreements, but they didn't end with the devastation that we see going on now," said Mahiri, an advisor to Berkeley's new charter middle and high school. "We need to start getting serious about gun control." He also noted that given the right setting, teachers can do the job of the workers -- known as Interrupters.
Dr. Jeff Ritterman, a Richmond city councilmember said the community needs jobs as part of a strategy to blunt violence. Stone, whose research examines family and school influences on child and adolescent school performance, especially for urban and at-risk youth, pointed out that methods used by the Interrupters are different from the social work training people get at universities, where students are explicitly taught not to become personally involved with their clients. She said that rather than CeaseFire workers becoming overwhelmed by the situations they get into, "I saw the Interrupters being healed themselves."
Smith, who has taught across Oakland schools, said kids are living in chaos, and most imagine themselves in jail or dead within 10 years. He said that it is important that educators "come to grips and be honest with them so they understand that you are building relationships and a foundation with them... Part of the challenge of working with inner city kids is getting involved with them to understand that they have an outlet, then getting them to trust in you... It's not a short fix. The sooner we realize that I think the faster our children will grow and become more engaged in the learning that's given to them."
Ozer called CeaseFire's work a powerful public health model that drew on people resources, relationships and local expertise. "It's deep work built on respect with a social and moral influence," she said. "From a public health perspective, there's a whole spectrum of where we intervene and clearly what CeaseFire is saying is that 'we're not going to deal with all that stuff. We're dealing with what's right here and now.' And we need all of it [to try and break the cycle of violence]."When people from the audience spoke, it became evident that many were doing similar work as those depicted in the film. Regina Jackson, executive director of the East Oakland Youth Development Center, said that her program works with young people "so they can learn to value their lives [and] begin to see their path to greatness."
In that vein, she said her Center worked with youth to create a volume of poetry called Y U Gotta Call It Ghetto? that encourages introspection among the teen authors. "Every opportunity to succeed is one more bud that gets to open," Jackson said, explaining that while the program is small, its work is important for youth and the community.
Mariah Gardner reads a poem from "Y U Gotta Call It Ghetto?"as Jamal Rasheed prepares to read his poem.
The audience reserved its greatest applause for three of the young people and authors of poems in Y U Gotta Call It Ghetto? Jackson brought with her.
Jamal Racheed, 17, read one of his poems, which talks, in part, about working "through difficulties/to discover mysteries/about myself."
And he closed out the program with some words of promise. "One of the things I was asking myself was, 'Do people still believe in hope?'"
He answered his question, pointing to himself and the two other teen authors standing before the crowd. "Not to be cocky," he said, "I think we're examples of hope."
Photos Courtesy: Judith Scherr, Berkeley Patch; and "The Interrupters."
return to gsE-bulletin return to News
|