Former gang members, crime victims create youth safety net

Bryan Jones once peddled drugs to buy fancy athletic shoes. If there was a school fight, it always seemed to involve Shaquille Holiday.

These two were among the teens who gathered in the Atlanta City Hall atrium earlier this week, wearing gray T-shirts promoting Zone Safety Atlanta and discussing how much the mayor's youth program has made a difference in their lives, schools and communities.

"Safety is the way," said Holiday, 17. "Drug free. Violence Free. Crime free. Safety. That's me."

His was a pledge shared by other members of Zone Safety Atlanta, which consists of crime victims and former criminals.

“It’s given me an opportunity to have a platform to do what I’m passionate about: teaching safety to youth, making sure they recognize the hazards and knowing what to do about them,” said Dontavious Taylor, one-time crime victim.

Zone Safety Atlanta has slowly changed the way youths who once looked for trouble, and their victims, now envision their communities. Founded in 2002, the program was created when juvenile crime was at its worst, executive director Danette McLaurin Glass said.

Over two weeks, two young girls were sexually assaulted two days apart and left in an abandoned house, a boy was shot in the face on his way home from a Boys and Girls Club, and another teenager was injured riding his bike on Bankhead Highway.

“It was a scary time,” said Taylor, a Morehouse College sophomore.

Taylor, then 11, didn't know any of the victims, but the crime wave coupled with the death of a brother of a childhood friend had him confused.

“I didn’t question the existence of God, but I couldn’t help wondering why he would let it happen,” Taylor said.

Instead of getting stuck, Taylor and 40 of his peers approached Atlanta City Councilman Ivory Young, other community leaders and Glass, and asked what they could do for them to stave off youth crime.

The answer was Zone Safety Atlanta, which isn’t a traditional scouting program but introduces youths to concepts such as good citizenship and practical life skills.

“That’s what that program efficiently does and has done since its inception,” Young said. “It’s Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts meets urban America.”

The youngsters realized they had a role to play in fighting crime in their community, and Young applauded Glass’s commitment in keeping them true to that belief.

After attending a town hall meeting hosted by Young and getting a look at a model program called Safety Town in Greensboro, N.C., Taylor and other teens designed their own program aimed at reducing metro Atlanta youth crime.

Glass said 150 teens have been trained in spreading the safety-oriented mission statement, and they have reached more than 17,000 across metro Atlanta, mainly at parks and recreation centers and Boys and Girls Clubs.

Arthur Powell, a former gang member, and Glass have led workshops at Atlanta and Clayton County schools. Teen leaders such as Taylor have facilitated training sessions, created interactive games and produced public service announcements to spread their message. Earlier this week, they hosted a citizenship summit and fair at Atlanta City Hall, and teen homicide, pregnancy and gang activity topped their list of concerns.

“The city of Atlanta owes Ms. Glass and Zone Safety Atlanta a great debt," Young said. "Lives have been saved through her intervention.”

Taylor has been surprised by what his peers don’t know, including how to cross the street, what to do when his or her home is on fire or who to call in case of an emergency.

“Parents aren't really teaching kids about safety so we stand in the gap,” he said.

In addition to helping keep youth safe, Zone Safety Atlanta is credited with reducing the reoccurring crime among juvenile offenders by 60 percent and violence in schools by 89 percent.

Although new to the program, Jones, now 21, and Holiday credit it for leading them into a safer, more productive lifestyle. For five years, Jones was “hungry for fast money’’ and ran with a gang. A teacher told him about Zone Safety Atlanta.