Interview: Local nonprofit leader responds to recent high profile youth violence incidents

Many youth-focused nonprofits in Indianapolis are reacting to the recent uptick in gun violence incidents, including a mass shooting over the Fourth of July weekend.

WFYI’s Abriana Herron sat down with Brandon Randall to talk about the work he does with young people to address the root causes of violence through his organization Tru Colors.

This interview has been edited for style and clarity.

Abriana Herron: Youth gun violence has been a big issue in the city for years now. How long have you been working with young people on this issue?

Brandon Randall: So I have been a youth worker since 2007. I started my career working at the local juvenile detention center, and I lost my first student in 2009. He was 15. He predicted he wouldn't see his 16th birthday. He was correct. He did not, and I have just lost student after student ever since then. But you know, close to two decades where this has been a priority topic.

Herron: So a number of high profile gun deaths among young people have occurred recently. Police and city response was quick, but it didn't resonate with everyone. How do you feel about the response?

Randall: So I have been pretty consistent in trying to get this city to prioritize young people for a long time, when they started the gun violence reduction strategies, and a lot of the work that OPHS is doing is 18 to 35 that's their focus.

However, in order to be a little bit more preventative, we have to focus on young people. Because whether folks in leadership positions understand it or not, young people are carrying guns, and they have been for quite some time. So we're not addressing the root cause. We're not addressing why kids are carrying guns to begin with, and what are we going to replace them with if we're telling them to put them down?

Herron: As you work alongside youth often, how are they feeling about the gun violence happening in the city?

Randall: They're desensitized. When you talk to these young people, they have lost so many people it's like routine, and it's normalized. If these kids have normalized death and violence, how do we shift that and normalize hope and peace? And there's not enough people who are collectively doing that.

Herron: How impactful do you believe that our curfew change for minors will be on youth violence in the city?

Randall: If there's going to be any impact, they're going to tout that as a success. But even what we just saw this past weekend, while there were fewer incidents downtown, on the circle, there were several incidents around the city. And so that's the nature of these surface-level responses.

They don't prevent crime; they just displace it. And so surveillance, increased policing, curfews, they are not solutions. They are really band-aids to make people feel better. But that's not a solution. That is a PR campaign.

Herron: Over the past few years, the city has provided more funding that aims to reduce violence among young people. Do you believe these programs are working?

Randall: I am a beneficiary of the Elevation Grant programs. And while I am grateful, the grants cannot be the only solution. It's still not enough, and I still don't think that we're utilizing the community as a stakeholder.

Youth organizations cannot carry this burden by ourselves. We have to have people in this city who are promoting and curating spaces of hope for young people, and we have to do better at trying to restore that hope, or this problem would never go away.

Contact WFYI Morning Edition newscaster and reporter Abriana Herron at aherron@wfyi.org.