Throughout much of her adolescence, Ny’lah Newkirk came to understand the severity of gun violence in her Southeast community— so much so that she doesn’t commute across the District on the Metro, unless on a school field trip. She also doesn’t engage in unsupervised group activities outside of her home.
However, as Newkirk, 18, explained to The Informer, a trip to Portland organized by the Safe States Alliance allowed her to see gun violence more broadly.
For three days in August, she counted among nearly 20 young people from other U.S. cities who sat in small groups, shared their experiences in violence prevention work, sharpened their skills and weighed in on the topics of dating violence and intra-community violence.
“Young people from St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Virginia and Arizona explaining how gun violence affects their city…opened my eyes to how major the issue was,” said Newkirk, a student in her senior year at McKinley Technology High School in Northeast. “I thought it was mainly D.C., but nothing’s really changing anywhere. The three main reasons for gun violence are childhood trauma, peer pressure and not having a support system around you.”
Newkirk currently serves as a gun violence prevention specialist and youth ambassador with The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, a local organization that sets out to provide safe spaces for survivors of gun violence and ensure that gun violence is no longer the norm in D.C.
In her role, Newkirk leads young people in discussions about their feelings, and other topics during what’s known as T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Tuesdays. She also represents The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project in the community while coordinating events, such as Youth Day D.C., which took place at Digital Pioneers Academy Public Charter School in Southeast on Aug. 2. The youth ambassador said such experiences are equipping her to run her nonprofit, Block the Bulletz, through which she produces clothing, conducts community outreach and encourages residents to help put a stop to gun violence.
For the high school senior, each opportunity she takes on in her violence prevention further positions her to realize her dreams of social entrepreneurship.
“People paint this narrative about youth in D.C., like we’re not going to make it out,” Newkirk told The Informer. “That’s not like how all youth are. We have our own businesses. We’re doing a lot for ourselves. We’re more than who they think we are. Our voices need to be heard so our generation and generations after us can feel safe and not ensure what we had to endure.”
Addressing the Effects of Gun Violence, ‘Empowering Youth to be Changemakers’
In June, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, pointing out that it now counts as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents.
In his report, Murthy said that gun violence causes long-term mental and emotional trauma, not only in those who directly experience it, but their friends, family and neighbors. He heralded a public health approach as the ideal means of curbing it. Policy suggestions included community violence interventions, the incorporation of gun violence prevention and emergency preparedness into safety programs, and increasing access to high-quality mental health and substance abuse treatment.
On Aug. 19, Safe States Alliance, a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the practice of violence prevention, conducted the town hall style-meetings with Newkirk and other youth whose programs received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Youth Violence Prevention Centers, Preventing Violence Affects Young Lives, and Community-Centered Approaches for the Prevention of Community Violence.
The goals of the summit, as explained by Safe States Alliance officials, centered on better understanding youth engagement in violence prevention, and providing training and networking opportunities for the young people involved in that work. Sharon Gilmartin, deputy director of Safe States Alliance said Newkirk and her peers took full advantage of the programming.
“Safe States believes in centering lived experience and empowering youth to be changemakers in their community,” Gilmartin told The Informer. “The youth summit was an exciting opportunity to bring together youth leaders, including Newkirk, from across the country to elevate their voices and experiences, and empower one another to create lasting change.”
T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, founded in 2016, bases its mission and community outreach strategy on the premise that gun violence is a public health issue.
Newkirk joined The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project at the height of the pandemic, when most, if not all, of its programming took place virtually. As T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project founder and executive director Tia Bell explained, Newkirk quickly embraced the tenets of the program at a time when it garnered the CDC’s attention and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant funding that accompanied it.
Through a five-year CDC grant, Bell established a partnership with the University of Michigan’s Youth Violence Prevention Center. This allowed her to document and collect evidence that supports her evidence-based youth violence prevention curriculum while she built what’s known as TRIGGER University.
Newkirk and other young people who attended TRIGGER University underwent several hours of training to become gun violence prevention specialists and youth ambassadors.
Bell also had a chance to travel to CDC headquarters in Georgia and will go to Michigan later this year. However, it was Newkirk, an up-and-coming leader, who served as The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project’s sole representative in Portland, and Bell said Newkirk did so with her merchandise in tow and an eagerness to explain to public health specialists the power of gun violence prevention work in the District.
“Newkirk…going to Portland is a dream come true for prevention,” Bell told The Informer. “This is a model for …getting the babies to understand what it takes to prevent the disease of gun violence. Newkirk went out there on a mission to represent her peers. Now it’s up to the CDC to utilize her [input] and I’m sure she’ll hold them accountable.”