As concerns about teen violence continue in Minneapolis, anti-violence organizations speak out about solutions and a collaborative approach needed from the city.

As temps warm up, juvenile crime has increased in the past. 

Several organizations told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reporter Brittney Ermon they rarely, if not ever, sit down in the same room and talk about ways to tackle teen violence.

KSTP facilitated a meeting to get the groups together to ask about teen violence and possible solutions.

“You hear a gunshot go off right now. You will see every last one of us jump up, run outside to see what’s going on,” Trahern Pollard, We Push for Peace founder, said.

You’ve likely seen their bright-colored sweatshirts beaming on the streets of Minneapolis.

Three different organizations — Mad Dads, We Push for Peace and T.O.U.C.H. Outreach — are on the ground daily, hoping to steer teens in the right direction.

“Teenagers, we see them getting younger and younger being involved with these car thefts,” Mohamed Abdul-Ahad, T.O.U.C.H. Outreach founder, said.

Just this week, Minneapolis police said two 15-year-old boys were shot while recklessly driving in a stolen Kia.

“It’s easy for people to look at this and just say, These are bad kids.’ Is that true? Is there more to it?” Ermon asked during the discussion.

“No, we don’t say these kids are bad,” Abdul-Ahad said.

Mentors explained what happens in the child’s household is often what spills out onto the streets coupled with a lack of resources to do productive things in the community.

“It will really give you a clearer understanding of how a kid’s mind was developing to their environment and things that they’re seeing on a daily basis,” Abdul-Ahad said.

“How many people are going to blame these kids for making decisions when their brain isn’t fully developed?” Jordan Nelson, Mad Dads’ executive director, added. “We need to view them as kids because they need to be held accountable and know they can’t continue the behavior.”

“I don’t think that the ideology behind these young men and women is that they don’t know what they’re doing because they are very in tune with what they’re doing. I think part of the issue is that they’re not thinking past that situation,” Pollard chimed in. “We try to get them to understand that to every action, there’s a reaction. There are consequences for everything you decide.”

The group explained the solution to teen violence is not an easy fix or something that can happen overnight.

“We can’t wait until the kid is caught up in a system to say, ‘Well, these are individuals that need help,” Abdul-Ahad said. “We got to start doing some door-knocking in some of these communities that have been impacted by some of these things that’s going on.”

“Instead of saying, you know, ‘Our children are traumatized.’ Okay, well, how are we helping them turn that trauma into power?” Pollard added. “Then let’s do it on the collaborative front and let’s get on the same page so that the message can be very clear.”

The mentors explained they can’t fix the teen violence issue alone.

“We need more of this with us three sitting at the table. It takes community to build community,” Nelson said. “The more we can sit at the table and have conversations with other people who are decision makers to discuss what the barriers are that don’t necessarily need to be there to make our work more effective.”

The group agreed it comes down to more city funding, collaboration from other organizations, parents and the community to make a long-lasting impact. 

“Nobody’s really stepping up and really supporting us and some of the efforts and some of the things that we want to do in the community,” Abdul-Ahad said. “We know the solution because we’re part of it.”

“So my big request is who else wants to come to the table?” Nelson added.

This is just a handful of organizations doing impactful work in Minneapolis.

The group explained they want an even bigger meeting like this in the future with more stakeholders in the room so everyone can be on the same page. They added they need more consistency from the city. They explained short-term contracts and grants do not help sustain long-term work.