A Northside non-profit in Minneapolis working to interrupt violence and change outcomes for the young people involved shared its space with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS recently to allow for one-on-one interviews with young adults who formerly felt “stuck” in a life of — or adjacent to — violent crime.

These young people credit the non-profit Restoration, Inc. for the investment and push necessary to change their trajectory.

Violence was never the intention, shared Devonte Duncan, 24. Initially, daily outdoor congregation with other young people was about forming a community but violence soon escalated, he said.

“We was never violent… We always, like, cook for everybody in community, all that, because we just always have fun out there and shoot dice. And that’s mostly what we were into for real, gambling,” Duncan said.

“…Until we started getting calls and people started just randomly shooting up the stores and all that. My little brother ended up getting shot out there like it’s real. It ain’t a place to be.”

Duncan said he started carrying a weapon himself after he got shot, “because I didn’t want to get shot again. I never even knew the person who shot me or anything.”

Then, one day, he met Restoration, Inc. founder and executive director Connie Rhodes and her team of violence interrupters, and that was when his situation slowly started to turn around.

“She started telling us like, ‘Why you guys sit out here and all that? There’s way more to life than just to be out here.’ It’s what woke me up,” Duncan shared.

“And they were right in the middle of it, on the block for six hours, no matter — cold, hot, shootings, I’m talking about… To me, I thought they was crazy,” said Dar’Quan King, 27.

Rhodes’ team of violence interrupters first meet the teenagers and young adults they serve on the street, where they met Duncan and King. Then, they come back day-after-day, until they convince one young person at a time to spend their time, instead, inside the purple-coated Haven of Hope on Fremont Avenue North.

Little by little, young person by young person, weapons are dropped at the door and the anger and heartache is worked out inside. The young people expressed finding hope in Rhodes, the other mentors and each other — and that hope is then continually passed down.

“This is like the fire extinguisher for the fire the Northside brings,” King said.

Soldon Armstrong, 31, is one of those mentors. He was released from prison at 21-years-old and stressed the importance of early intervention.

Armstrong said he initially “joined the gangs” as a means of trying to provide for his younger siblings and single mom.

“Yeah, that’s where most of them come from. Either they’re trying to provide for their household or they’re trying to make it easier for their mother, single mother raising them,” he added.

“So, I think that’s what kids need, somebody that’s there, like 24-hour service, because you never know when they gonna call you, and you never know when they’re in trouble, when they’re hungry, something’s happening at home, and they got to get away from that. So it should be somebody like that. Like [Rhodes], I can call her at 3 in the morning and she’s gonna answer the phone.”

Alyissa Kemp, 19, met Rhodes and her team as a juvenile. Like the others, she was initially skeptical, but ultimately found a way out through mentorship.

Now, she’s discovered art as a passion, and made her way to college out of state.

“I probably would never knew that I like to rap or like, do the stuff that I do now,” she said.

“Nobody knows what’s happening in our households, nobody know if we’ve been abused, if we’re hungry, if we’re mentally okay. But for her, I feel like she sees that in everybody,” King said, referencing Rhodes.

King said it took about 50 tries to get him off the corner and into the Haven of Hope. Now, he’s a chef with his own business. Restoration, Inc. also helped him secure the funding and other supports necessary to get his LLC off the ground.

“Without her pushing me toward that, I would’ve never did it,” King said.

As King spoke, tears began to stream down Rhodes’ face.

“When I hear them speak, it lets me know I’m on the right track, I’m doing the right thing,” she said.

“It was like a different type of love that I’ve never had,” King said. “So why not want to change for real?”