If you’re a Gen-Xer like me, you probably remember a program from school called D.A.R.E., the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, where police officers came into classrooms to teach kids how to say no to drugs. For a lot of us, those lessons were our first conversation about substance use. I believe D.A.R.E. played a role, however small, in helping my generation get off to a good start in life.
Like drug use, gun violence is a major threat to the health of our children. As manager of Saint Paul’s Neighborhood Safety Community Council, I wondered: Why can’t we have a program like D.A.R.E. to address the epidemic of gun violence among our kids? The idea resonated both with NSCC members and with the young leaders who serve on City boards through our Youth On Boards program. Together, the NSCC and I developed a capsule curriculum we could bring to Saint Paul students for a week. It covers topics like self-esteem, mental health, and community care to help our young people “just say no” to guns in their lives.
Today, that program is a reality. Saint Paul’s Goals Not Guns program has had the privilege of working with kids from third to sixth grade and teenagers from ninth through twelfth. In each school, members of the NSCC bring students together for two-hour sessions, Monday through Friday. When he’s not busy leading security for the Minnesota Twins, the amazing Charlie Adams—former Minneapolis cop and precinct chief, and long-time coach of Minneapolis’s undefeated North High football team—teaches alongside us.
When we start, we invite students to help carry the message of staying gun-free by creating their own design with a slogan and an image. Once we’ve chosen a winning design, Saint Paul young people at risk of homelessness screen-print it on real shirts as part of their training at Elpis Enterprises.
At the end of the program, we bring all the students together for a big celebration, alongside our partners from Moms Demand Action Minnesota, who advocate for gun safety and violence prevention. Mayor Carter joins to congratulate the student designer, who also receives a $300 check. Everyone gets a tee-shirt, even the mayor, to carry the message of a gun-free life into the community. Here Mayor Carter and Right Track participant Hser Wah model her winning design: “Dispose the Guns, Not Our Bodies.”
Members of the public have a limited-time opportunity to purchase the shirts as well, and the proceeds go to the school to fund more Goals Not Guns programming.
The Goals Not Guns program has been a great success in Saint Paul schools including St. Paul City School, Face to Face Academy, and Humboldt High. But we want to bring the curriculum everywhere our kids are facing hard decisions about guns that might set the trajectory of their whole lives. That’s why Saint Paul Parks has invited us to provide the Goals Not Guns program for Rec Check participants at Frogtown, Martin Luther King, Jimmy Lee, and West Minnehaha community and rec centers.
We are currently on schedule to release tee-shirts designed by students at the recreation centers the week of November 17! The store will stay open for 30 days, and during that time buyers may purchase tee-shirts from the previous winners. Check the ONS homepage for a link to the store.
For me, the most inspiring part of Goals Not Guns is seeing young people help other young people find the courage they need to say no to guns, one tee-shirt at a time.
Lynnaia Jacobsen
Manager, Neighborhood Safety Community Council