The Center for Teen Empowerment is planting new roots on Rochester’s North side.
The non-profit's new teen hub in the Maplewood Historic District sits at the corner of Magee and Dewey Avenues next to a tattoo and piercing parlor, a barber shop, and a convenience store.
It’s choice real estate for the organization. This is an intersection that has seen numerous fatal shootings in recent years — something Teen Empowerment is working to change.
“The flowerpot outside is actually a memorial and representation of the lives that were lost here,” said 19-year-old Sahiyra Dillard, program coordinator for Teen Empowerment. “It's important for us to be at this location to spread that awareness, to advocate for the young people in this community to try to get rid of that gun violence.”
The organization – which also has locations on North Goodman and on Genesee streets -- approaches peace advocacy through a kind of confrontation.
The goal is to bring in and hire young people who are disaffected, committing crimes and getting into trouble and provide a space where they can build skills, be kids, find their voices, and step out of cycles of violence.
“Those straight-A students are okay, and we would love for them to come in, because we need their knowledge,” Dillard said. “But we also want the ones who's stealing the cars. We want the ones who's robbing. We want the ones who's failing with their schoolwork. Because with their experience, we're able to say, ‘What's not working for you? And what would work for you?’ So that we can then try to advocate for those things to be put in place for everyone.”
That advocacy extends from the individual to the community to lawmakers, and it goes beyond addressing community violence in a vacuum.
In Dillard’s case, her journey into advocacy with Teen Empowerment began in earnest when she was about 16 years old.
“There was this fight that I got into, again, just being with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. And I jumped into it,” she said. “It turned into something major, which actually got me a long-term suspension of four months.”
By the time she returned to school, she said there was a month left of classes.
“I was disengaged from the friends that I did have,” she said. “My schoolwork became heavy. It was a lot going on for me mentally at that time. Once Teen Empowerment heard about it, of course, they brought me in for a chat.”
From there, she wrote her story, gave a speech in front of the school board, and has since traveled to Albany to lobby legislators for the passage of the “Solutions not Suspensions” bill.
“We are looking at legislation and laws and policies that impact young people negatively on a day-to-day basis, and we are advocating for changes for those laws and those policies,” Director of Programs Shanterra Mitchum said.
Young people are able to analyze issues affecting them, Mitchum said, and engaging them in meaningful work that centers their perspectives and insights while putting them in a position of decision making is game-changing.
"Oftentimes, what young people are experiencing and feeling is powerlessness. And when you feel powerlessness, what you do is you trying to find power in ways that are not real, right?” Mitchum said.
“If I'm fighting in the streets, it may feel powerful in a moment, but that's not real power,” she added. “So what we try to give young people is an opportunity and a platform to say, ‘Hey, this is what real power looks like, and we're going to give you everything that you need in order to also be successful.’”
It’s not just an organization for teens, Mitchum said. Instead, it’s meant to be a space for intergenerational collaboration.
“So young people can walk into an environment where they know they will not be judged, where their voices will be heard and their thoughts matter, and that we will listen and we will respond to what they're thinking, what they're feeling, and what they want to see in this community,” she said.
For 18-year-old Ni’ziah Edmond, having the new site in her own neighborhood feels promising.
“It's a neighborhood that has experienced a lot of gang activity and just overall violence, and it's seen a lot of innocent people have to perish due to gun violence, specifically,” said Edmond, who participates with Teen Empowerment.
Edmond says when she first started working with Teen Empowerment, she struggled with emotional outbursts and nervousness. Then through original poetry readings she started feeling more relaxed in herself, she said.
“If you have something going on, (Teen Empowerment) is here to help you through that, or like, if you have anger issues, (they) will help,” Edmond said. “They'll literally sit you down for like three days in a group with people who have come to teach you about ‘here's how you deescalate these situations. Here's coping mechanism for yourself.’ So for me, like I feel like now I'm way more well spoken. I think now I'm less nervous.”
Edmond has been to the westside location on Genesee Street, and said she’s seen a difference in the growing sense of security she’s felt in that area.
“I want people to feel safer walking up and down Dewey, knowing (Teen Empowerment) is there, the same way it makes me feel safe walking up and down Genesee,” she said.
Outside, a neighbor’s car stops at the red light on Magee Avenue next to the new site. A woman rolls down the window and asks what’s new here.
“Teen Empowerment? Okay! Oh, that’s great,” she said, recognizing the work the organization has been doing in Rochester since 2003. “They need that around here to help these kids, really they do.”
