Root Causes, Real Talk, and Building What Comes Next
With nearly 100 students in the room, the passion was loud. Students were ready to express themselves and turn their ideas into action. People were laughing, debating, cheering for one another, and getting serious all at once. This session wasn’t just about learning what violence is; it was about looking underneath it, naming what we notice, and starting to build what we want instead.
From Symptoms to Roots
Session 3 opened by slowing the room down and creating space for honest conversation. From there, the focus moved quickly to the heart of the day: root causes.
A simple comparison helped ground the discussion. When you get a cold, the symptoms appear first, but the underlying cause is actually at work. Violence works the same way. Focusing only on what we see misses what’s actually driving it.
Students explored violence beyond direct harm, looking at structural and cultural forms as well. The conversation kept returning to the same question: what’s happening underneath what we see every day?
Students Didn’t Just Participate. They Led.
After learning about root causes, students from different schools came together to start brainstorming creative and strategic solutions to rising gun violence in their communities. As they began putting these ideas onto posters, groups were questioning why certain problems keep repeating and what actually needs to change for young people to feel safe.
One group centered their poster around vulnerability, naming it as a missing piece in how communities respond to violence. Their poster read:
“Our solution is to be more vulnerable. Often, people are too scared and stuck in their own heads… but if people talk or open up to someone, then this feeling will eventually disappear… We all want the same thing, which is a good life.”
When asked why vulnerability feels so difficult, students pointed to the systems around them. Najhae from DRW explained that many young people don’t feel safe speaking up because their concerns are often dismissed:
“A lot of children don’t feel safe enough to speak out because they’ll be put down, or parents will tell them it’s not that serious… Our concerns matter, and we want to make a difference.”
— Najhae, DRW College Prep
Another group focused their poster on the idea of “following,” connecting it directly to cycles of gang violence and harmful influence.
“People follow each other’s steps like murder, gun violence… so social solutions could be investigating youth issues and creating safe spaces like therapy in school, so if students don’t feel safe outside, they can still go to the safe spaces in their schools.”
— Serena, Roosevelt High School“People don’t know who to follow, so they follow influencers with status… even when these celebrities don’t actually live the life they portray. Real families and friend groups are better influences.”
— Yamil, Roosevelt High School
Across the posters, a clear theme emerged: students were asking for safe spaces, better role models, and the chance to be heard before harm happens.
Time to Vote!
Once students finished their posters, it was time to vote. Posters went up, students grabbed their stickers, and everyone was instructed to vote for their two favorite projects.
Students walked around the room reading each other’s posters and placing stickers on the ideas they liked. People moved between tables, stopped to read, pointed things out to friends, and reacted to different ideas as they went. Some students were cheering each other on, others were running back and forth to check which posters were getting attention, and many stood quietly reading through the creative work.
It didn’t feel serious or stiff; it felt active. Students were engaged with each other’s ideas, curious about what other groups came up with, and enjoyed seeing their work up on the walls.
Resetting Energy, Building Community
After a productive morning of brainstorming, students had lunch followed by a much-deserved dance break. The floor was filled with students dancing to their favorite songs. The room was full of laughter, lively music, and plenty of “fire” dance moves.
After the dance break, students played a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament-style, where the cheering mattered just as much as winning. The point wasn’t the game itself, but the way the room came back together as a community after breaking for food.
Today is the Day!
The session then moved into the Four Wings Movement, a framework that reminds us there isn’t only one path toward change. People can create change through:
- Action (protests, boycotts, marches)
- Building (creating new systems)
- Reforming (policy, civic engagement, systems change)
- Healing (care, art, therapy, music)
Students were reminded that everyone has a role, and every strategy matters.
Session 3 marked the beginning of real project development.
“This is our third session… Today is the day. Right now. So let’s lock in.”
As groups brainstormed, they weren’t only thinking creatively, they were thinking critically. Could this be finished by April? How much would it cost? Who would take on which roles? Would it actually be effective?
Youth projects: Voices, Murals, Healing, and Visibility
After deciding on their main projects, students began presenting their ideas to the room. Each project was rooted in students’ lived experiences and the realities of their communities.
Across the board, students presented strong, thoughtful projects they felt could truly reach and support youth today.
Roosevelt High School
Roosevelt’s project, Voices for Peace: Stories that Heal, focused on collecting and sharing real stories from students and staff to break the silence around violence and create space for healing within the school.
DRW College Prep
DRW’s project centered on using art and storytelling to address cycles of trauma, creating space for students to process emotions like anger, grief, and acceptance while sharing how violence affects families and communities.
Highland Park High School
Highland Park’s project focused on public art and visibility, using murals and creative expression to honor lives lost to gun violence and spark conversation in a community where these topics are often avoided.
Baker College Prep
Baker’s projects focused on awareness and healing through multiple approaches, including school-wide surveys, creative media, and student-led initiatives designed to start conversations about gun violence and support community healing.
Richards Career Academy
Richards’ project centered on creating safe spaces for students to speak openly about violence and isolation, to disrupt normalization, and help students feel supported rather than alone. They discussed ideas like a slam poetry night to give students space to express what they’re feeling.
Uplift Community High School
Uplifts project focused on creating intentional spaces for students to express their emotions, with the goal of addressing conflict and harm early by giving people healthier ways to talk through what they are feeling before it escalates.
Veterans (cross-school collaboration)
The veterans’ cross-school projects focused on bringing students from different schools together through shared storytelling and community-building, aiming to broaden perspectives and create positive spaces that connect youth across neighborhoods.
To Sum It Up…
Session 3 reinforced something students were already demonstrating throughout the day: young people don’t need to be fixed; they need to be taken seriously. They need space to talk, time to think, and adults who are willing to listen.
As Mr. Rodriguez shared while reflecting on the work students were doing:
“You guys come up with great solutions and creative ideas together. That’s why we need more spaces like this, so you can keep talking about these issues and learning how to make change.”
Session 3 wasn’t just about understanding violence.
It was about the students claiming their power to change it.
