Crystal Garrant, Chief Program Officer of Sandy Hook Promise, Aaliyah Stewart, founder of ASW Foundation, and Gary Police Chief Derrick Cannon Jr., will join Dr. Michael McGee, founder of Project Outreach and Prevention (POP) on Youth Violence, at West Side Leadership Academy, 900 Gerry St., Gary, IN 46406 on Friday April 26, 2024 from 12:30pm until 2:30pm.
The event marks the end of a weeklong series for “National Youth Violence Prevention Week” across Chicago and Northwest Indiana, entitled “Peace, Unity, and Love Tour,” with events reaching around five thousand area school children. Culminating in music performances headlined by, WanMor, MAKO Girls, CRFW and Praxton.
Crystal Garrant, who will speak at the event, knows the devastation gun violence creates working with the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, ten years after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Aaliya Stewart, who will also be speaking, has seen gun violence up close and personal with the loss of her two brothers. Derrick Cannon Sr., Chief of Gary police department is no stranger to violence, as the city, even with homicides on the decline with a 13% decrease in 2023 from the previous year, according to data Gary Police Department. Organizations such as POP, Sandy Hook Promise and AWS Foundation are attributed, among other violence prevention programs, in having a positive impact.
Dr. McGee will also speak at the event, as to its purpose, and to show “Stop the Bleed” techniques and procedures that can save a life while waiting for emergency services. The events are also supported by Positive Approach to Teen Health and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) for Northwest Indiana.
Gun violence has reached epidemic proportions in U.S., and according to a 2023 Pew Research Center analysis of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention annual mortality statistics, “Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50% in two years, between 2019 and 2021.” Homicide being the largest single category of gun deaths among children and teens, and suicide, a disturbing second.
Dr. McGee, MD, is a renowned emergency department, ER physician, the national chair of the National Medical Association’s Council on Violence Prevention, and the founder of Project Outreach and Prevention (POP) on Youth Violence [www.poponviolence.org]. The not-for-profit organization was created to prevent and alleviate Youth Violence, while inspiring healthy lifestyles, positive behaviors, and accessible career opportunities. POP provides outreach services, educational seminars, as well as college and career readiness opportunities. Achieved by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, by joining with active community partners to create safe, fulfilling and academically enriching environments.
