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Youth at the Anti-Violence Rally at MacFarland Middle School.

A group of 8th grade students recently hosted the first anti-violence rally at MacFarland Middle School. The event was the culmination of an eight-week workshop series in which students defined and identified issues facing their community, and planned a project to have a meaningful positive impact on one particular issue.

"We chose to host an anti-violence rally because there is so much violence in our neighborhood and many of the students bring it into the school," explained 8th grade cohort member Crystal Mendoza.

The rally provided students the opportunity to talk about violence, and participants attended two sessions, covering gang violence and dating violence. The gang violence session covered a wide range of topics including the reasons gangs are alluring to youth (protection on the street, a need to belong) to how youth can get their needs met in more healthy ways. The group also spoke about the stark realities of gang life including initiation rites, turf wars, and life in jail. Daniel, the leader of the discussion and a former gang member and drug dealer, spoke about relatives who went to jail and how they felt abandoned as their fellow gang members never came to visit. The dating violence session helped students understand all types of violence that can come with dating, including bullying, peer pressure and sexual violence.

Jesse Marte, a member of the 8th grade service learning group explained, "I wanted to participate in the [8th grade cohort] because there is so much going on at our school and I wanted to help to do something about it."

"It is extremely powerful that these 8th grade cohort members chose to conduct an anti-violence rally at their school," AmeriCorps Director Karen Brumbaugh said. "This was not a typical assembly as the group facilitated break-out sessions and invited speakers to present facts and material to start discussions and dialogue around violence within their community."

Many thanks to the LAYC AmeriCorps Service Learning team for helping facilitate this workshop and to our partner presenters from the LAYC Gang Intervention Program and WEAVE.

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