Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets was profiled by Metro News today in an article featured on the front page of their website and in a paper version distributed around New York City. The article detailed the dedication of teens to ending gun violence, and quoted youth organizers who spoke about the way the program has changed their lives. To learn more about the Arts to End Violence festival that the youth organizers are helping put together this year, click here. For the Arts to End Violence tumblr, click here.

YO S.O.S.: Brooklyn teens ready to holster gun violence

On any given Monday or Wednesday afternoon, in a third-floor room in a church on Kingston Avenue, a group of 14- to 17-year-olds are gearing up for important work: tackling the issue of gun violence in their community.

These teens are part of a group in Crown Heights called YO S.O.S. (Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets), and they all went through an application process to join a program that many of them say hits very close to home.

Mariama Barry, a ninth-grader at Wingate, a school nearby on Kingston, lives in Bed-Stuy and said she was motivated to join YO S.O.S. because of the shootings in her neighborhood.

“I’ve heard the gunshots and it’s really disturbing,” Mariama explained. “I wouldn’t want something like that to affect any of my family members.”