HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A group of students is issuing a public service announcement to address gun violence in Hampton Roads and across the country.
‘Off the Streets & Onto the Set‘ is an innovative youth development program for ages 8 to 24.
The group gathers every Saturday at the Northampton Community Center at 1435 Todds Lane, Building A in Hampton.
Last summer, the students shot, wrote, and produced a five-minute video.
This past weekend, many of the students returned to the area from college to showcase their work. The PSA debuted for the first time at the Hampton Operation Ceasefire: Beyond the Bullet Youth Summit.
“I’ve heard too many stories in this community that have affected children and men, women, and no one should be [subject] to that violence,” said Mikayla Turner, a rising sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “My mom wants to bring them off the streets and behind the camera to tell their story so that they don’t have to be a witness of that violence anymore. We can be the change, help others and the communities that have those issues.”
Saadia White, the founder of Amazine Amazon Inc. and creator of Off the Set & Onto The Stage, allows the students to lead the program to help navigate mental wellness and conflict resolution.
“I find it really important for me to be a part of these things because I have a heart for it,” said Jordan Sargent, a rising senior at Phoebus High School. “I want to be a part of that change.”
Sargent recalled when a student brought a gun to school in May.
“Knowing that it was at my school, and I was there at my school when it happened, it was … a little scary,” Sargent said. “They didn’t really do too much about it. We had to find out from other students and no faculty mentioned [it]. There was no lockdown or anything. It could have been a lot worse. … Thank God it wasn’t [that] somebody got hurt.”
The students outline the heartbreaking numbers of the nationwide issue while also calling for mental health services to help prevent shootings.
“We have a voice, so why not use it? We want to really get our voices out there and make a real change,” said Kennedy Hood, a junior at Howard University in Washington, D.C. “It’s amazing that we get to have our hard work shown and raise awareness in the way of a short PSA, something that isn’t just words on a screen, something that’s really thought out and put together.”
The group is hopeful elected officials will consider the passage of “evidence-based gun safety measures for all firearm holders, licensed and unlicensed,” among several other changes.
“I hope that they see us, hear us, and they do something about it,” Turner said. “Being able to make a change, be the voice in my community and other communities in this world is something that is necessary. I feel like not a lot of people are doing that nowadays, and if they are, unfortunately, their voices aren’t being heard. We want to be that organization to step up to the plate and be able to make the change.”
Learn more about Off the Streets & Onto the Set here.
