Issue Position: Youth Safety & Development

Issue Position

We have successfully reduced youth violence rates in Boston before, and we can do it again. Likewise, a wealth of data points us in the right direction for reducing crime by adults. As a city and as a state, we need to re-invest in the tested solutions that we know work and be willing to try new ideas that have gotten results elsewhere.

Working as an urban public school teacher, I saw, first-hand, the difference between the paths of young people who had hope and high expectations for their futures and those who did not. As a parish council member in one of the city's youth violence "Hot Spots," I've worked to preserve the neighborhood institutions and programs that provide positive alternatives for our young people.

As your state senator, I carry this work from the classroom and the neighborhood level to our state government, fighting to address youth violence on a larger scale. I am guided by three fundamental strategies for addressing youth violence at its roots: giving kids a more hopeful sense of their own futures through rigorous education and meaningful afterschool and summer programs; increasing their relationships with caring adults; and decreasing easy access to weapons.

Beyond youth violence prevention measures, there are many tested, effective solutions we can support to make our neighborhoods safer--from CORI Reform to drug courts to sentencing reform to re-entry programs. I have supported policies and budget programs that put these solutions into place, or protect and expand them where they already exist--always pushing to get real, practical results for our neighborhoods.

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