CINCINNATI — Two Cincinnati nonprofits are partnering up to bring gun violence prevention workshops directly into local classrooms.
Arts Equity Collective and Never The Less Inc. are working together to offer free one-hour prevention sessions for students ages 12 to 17. The program's 15 page comprehesive plan incorporates learning and literacy into fun, interactive and educational tools to reduce gun violence and homicides.
"We're talking about de-escalation strategies, looking at choices, the chances that you take and the consequences that our youth are facing, and just really supporting them," said Mopoetry Phillips, president of Arts Equity Collective.
This comes after a fatal shooting involving an 11-year-old just six days into the new year.
"I see so many 12-year-olds, even 10-year-olds, in the juvenile detention center," said Doris Thomas, founder of Never The Less Inc. "We go there every month, three times a month, to see the girls there, and to try to change their mindsets, and to have them come from there into here, to continue that relationship with them in our diversion program."
WATCH: How the two programs are working together to face gun violence
Phillips told us she works through arts and healing for youth using prevention education, while Thomas said she focuses on inspiring young girls to find their confidence through her organization.
"We start with 12-year-olds because they are the most impressionable, and if they go beyond 17 years old, they're ideally grown and have made their own minds and truly out in the world," Thomas said.
The organizations have also signed memorandums of understanding with other anti-gun violence leaders. Phillips told us about some of the other leaders she works with, ranging from independent social workers to the owner of the Black Gun Association.
"We're pulling everyone in and anyone else who wants to come with us," Phillips said.
The program also plans to bring parents who have lost children to gun violence into school spaces to share their experiences.
"If you have a child that you're having difficulty with, if she or he is giving you problems at home, if they are suspended from school, you don't know what to do, call Never The Less. We are an after-school program, but we will open our hours to help a parent," Thomas said.
A Mother's Voice is a support group in Cincinnati that provides a safe space for grieving and healing mothers who lost children to senseless gun violence.
Rochelle Wood, founder of A Mother's Voice, lost her son Josiah Harris to gun violence in 2021. She said she supports the initiative as a way to create safe spaces for students who may not feel comfortable talking to their parents about these issues.
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"There are better days. It does get better, and what I want to see is more mothers turning their children's pain into a legacy," Wood said.
Wood said she hopes children will open up more and "understand that once you pull that trigger and that person leaves here, they're gone forever."
"It affects the whole, it affects everybody, from the grandmothers to the siblings. It affects everybody," Wood said.
The program's goal is to connect students with Never The Less's "Dear Me" after-school programs, which help young people identify positive qualities about themselves.
"We want them to have a voice. We want them to be able to express themselves in healthy ways. We want them to be able to learn how to articulate themselves and effectively communicate, to avoid a lot of those things," said Raven Norman, Program Director for Never the Less Inc. "What we're trying to do is help them redirect themselves in a way to figure out their coping skills to be able to self-regulate."
The organizations are asking local schools to contact them to schedule prevention workshops, which can include games, literacy and dialogue, according to Phillips.
"We're looking for high school administrators who are open to us coming into the classroom. This is a free service to do gun violence prevention," Phillips said. "It's all geared towards gun violence prevention."
They are asking local schools interested in the workshops to contact Neverthelessinc.com. Any parents interested in the "Dear Me" program can call 513-918-2989.
