Need HOPE in KC's struggle with violence? Let the children rise

Photo from The Kansas City Star by John Sleezer

If Kansas City were a teenager, or a life-tossed youth in his or her 20s, how would we counsel his trauma?

How does she stand the shooting deaths around her, the wounded neighbors, so many of them young like herself?

How does he heal and rise?

Those questions led Tufts University Medical School professor Robert Sege and Bezos Family Foundation science officer Ellen Galinsky back to the heart of a recent dialogue in a webinar with a nationwide collection of educators.

First, remember that the child, like all children, carries an innate and unlimited capacity of human spirit.

Then, recognize the trauma — in this case, the 29 homicides already this year (update: 110 homicides by July 29) on top of 150 a year ago, and the hundreds more maimed by gunfire, and the fear and the loss — and realize how it weighs on the child’s human development.

“When you see the results of what you do, the sense of engagement is powerful”

Know that positive life experiences will stack courage on top of trauma. But the pillars of hope that Sege and Galinsky described won’t form if the maturing youth is only sheltered and told what to do by adults, they said.

The young Kansas City must be engaged by its elders in the work of restoration. It must be given voice in order to be emboldened to take action. And action heals.

“When you see the results of what you do, the sense of engagement is powerful,” Sege said.

Our city’s struggle with violence wasn’t the original objective of this webinar dialogue. The National Campaign for Grade Level Reading had brought Sege and Galinsky together March 3 to talk about the importance of moving beyond trauma-informed care, toward asset-informed care in helping children rise out of hard life circumstances.

We should acknowledge hardships and barriers, but frame the work of education around the strengths — of the individual, the family and the community. This stuff, as the webinar's subtitle said, is “The Science and Language of HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences.”

That which restores the wellspring of a youth’s spirit can likewise restore a city.

The same four pillars of HOPE raise up both — through relationships that bind us, an environment that is safe and equitable, engagement that raises social and civic connectedness, and social-emotional learning that comes from working and playing together.

“One of the key skills we have to develop in children is taking on challenges,” Galinsky said. Kansas City should “bring in young people as leaders,” she said, “ask them to help come up with a plan. Let them be part of an ad campaign.”

School by school. Neighborhood by neighborhood.

They’re not talking about anything that would put young people in danger.

There are individuals “who are quite threatening and they have to be dealt with,” Sege said. “We know that guns are available and youth violence can turn lethal.”

But Kansas City’s heart is young, and hurting. And this we can do: Give her counsel. Reflect his trauma. Give them license to lead.

Then they will look back and remember 2020 and what we made from these hard days — the rebirth of our courage and spirit.

By Joe Robertson, LINC writer