Save Our Streets (S.O.S.)

NBC profiles our Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) program, which works in Brooklyn and the Bronx to stop shootings by building community relationships and connecting young people to support. Hear from Rahson Johnson, a violence interrupter and youth advocate with our S.O.S. team, who uses his lived experience with gun violence and the prison system to help guide children towards a better path. “The challenge for me was going back to the community that I wanted to destroy, that I was hurt by, and being able to make change,” Johnson tells NBC’s Maya Brown.

Dozens of middle school students from Launch Charter School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, joined up with our Save Our Streets team, school staff, and other members of the community to stage a walkout against gun violence to kick off Gun Violence Awareness Month. The walkout came after the young people spent months learning about the impacts of gun violence on their communities and many others. “They want the community to know that they're here and they're making noise to show that enough is enough. Gun violence needs to stop,” said Anthony Rowe, project director of our Neighbors in Action program.

More than 100 students in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, took a bold stand against gun violence in their own communities by participating in a walkout to mark the beginning of Gun Violence Awareness Month. The walkout was planned with support from the Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School in collaboration with our Save Our Streets Brooklyn team, which works to prevent shootings and bring positive resources to young people at risk of getting involved in gun violence. Read more about the walkout, and the months of study and reflection that went into it, in the New York Times.