OPINION: How do we keep our neighborhoods safe? Three youths share their solutions. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Safe & Sound
December 1, 2023
Earlier this year, Safe & Sound hosted an essay contest and asked young people to share how to keep communities safe. Here are the winners and their essays.
First Place: Sebastian Rubalcava, 17, attends St. Francis High School
In our homes, in or schools, our places of employment and in our communities, there’s one thing all those places put ahead of everything else: SAFETY 1.
Everyone has the human right to be safe and to be safe in all these environments.
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What does it mean to be safe or feel safe?
In our homes, to be safe from abuse or neglect. In our schools or safe place, to be ourselves without being bullied. Safe to be able to talk to our teachers. In our places of employment, do we have proper safety equipment, being safe from sexual harassment, racism, or sexuality. In our communities, being safe from violence or other dangers such as drugs and gangs.
Now, how do I play my part.
Where do I begin? Let’s start with where I spend most of my day: In school, being very active in the athletics department; involved in three sports – football, wrestling and track.
I spend most of my time at school. For me I want my school to be a safe, fun, and memorable experience.
Safe from being singled out or bullied.
So how do I make my school a safer environment?
My biggest thing is awareness, which will be talked about in all my aspects of safety in different environments.
I make students aware of other students who might need a little more help than others.
For example, if my friend broke his leg, I’ll be aware to give him a little help with doors or even carry his books to his next class.
If there are students in wheelchairs, open doors for them.
Being kind to people is one of my ways to make school a safe place. Another way is by standing up to bullying. I would run an anti-bullying after-school program once a week for students to understand cognitive behavior and have self-awareness events. Not only for those getting bullied but those who wanted to help stop bullying.
It would be a total success. Bullying is no longer a big problem at my high school. This is just a small part of what I can contribute for safety in my school.
I would also start telling students who walk home to stay in bigger groups to feel safe getting to their destination after school. This would keep them safe from violence outside of school. Also, it is more visible to drivers.  It’s easier for motorists to see a large group of kids than just one or two.
So being a student for me, school is first when it comes to safety.
Now, to help peers at home be safe is a little more challenging.
First, we must be aware of our friends and other students’ mental health and emotional state of mind: If they keep coming into school looking sad, depressed, wearing the same clothes, and even as far as bruises on their body. Also, if they are eating lunch fast.
These are signs of things that are going on at home.
There have been a couple of times I have seen some of these things in a friend and in other students.
One of my friends would eat all his lunch and ask others for food they weren’t going to eat. He never did that before. So, I spoke to him and came to find out his father lost his job and couldn’t afford much food after paying bills.
So, I asked my friend if I could organize a food drive. He felt embarrassed but agreed. My friend was a good student and was a friend to everyone. Word got out and by the end of the week, the family had food that would last about a month.
His father got a new job, and my friend was safe. These are just some ways I try to make our homes a safe environment.
Another time my friend told me about his parents constantly arguing. We made the principal aware. The principal ended up having a conference with the parents regarding what students reported. The parents ended up having family counseling. Now the student feels safe being at home with no arguments.
Now for my community /neighborhood. I volunteer at a food pantry on the South Side of Milwaukee, I also volunteer for a nonprofit organization Core El Centro,  Your Move MKE Community Center and for Saint Adalbert Parish Church.
I have various duties, from interacting in the community, serving meals, setting up events and volunteering at those events.
How do I help make my community a safer environment? Awareness. During the times that I participate at the food pantry, I talk and interact with the people from the community and get to know the stories they have.
They would tell me things such as a little girl hit by a car because the driver was speeding and not following the streets signs to how they end up losing their job, even worse how they end up losing a love one.
The stories that are strong to hear are when the neighborhood speaks about how people are dying of drug overdoses and how they see people selling drugs to minors and young adults.
With this information, I’m aware of what I’m seeing around when I volunteer at Core El Centro or Your Move MKE.
We all want to find a safe place to be. Those places seem a safe place to be. I make it seem to other youth that it is okay to come to the organization that I give my time to so they can join this nonprofit and feel safe like I do.
I know it doesn’t seem much, but if we as a community get together, we can make a difference and be heard.
It’s important to get to know the community to know what the community needs are. We all watch each other’s backs.
If there is a person in wheelchair or deaf in the community, we get signs put up making passersby aware.
So how do I make my environment safer with awareness?
WE make friends, family and the community aware of unsafe environments. We can work together to change that unsafe place to a safer one. My name is Sebastian Rubalcava, and I use awareness to make my school, home and community safer places for everyone.
Second Place: Cruzcita Galvan Jenkins, 16, attends Milwaukee Lutheran High School
My name is Cruzcita Galvan-Jenkins, and I am a 16-year-old native of Milwaukee.
Growing up with events like community get-togethers, I learned to recognize my area as a safe and close-knit community.
I perceived Milwaukee overall as being like this, not just my neighborhood.
As I grew older, I was exposed to many of the negative aspects of the city, including violence and property crimes.
I was especially aware of all of this in 2020, which went on record as Milwaukee’s most violent year with 189 homicides.
Many Milwaukee residents, including me, had great difficulty during this period, which also included the COVID-19 pandemic.
When I realized that many of the victims of these murders were children and teenagers my age, I started becoming more involved in my neighborhood as a way to encourage other teens to engage in safer activities. It was hard to watch young people my age being killed by such violence.
For my part, I started getting involved in my neighborhood by just observing what was happening around me.
In my neighborhood and then in other parts of the city, where events ranging from small barbecues to major festivals were being done, I started attending community gatherings once it became safer for larger numbers to gather again.
This in itself changed my perspective about the positive aspects of this city, and I even started inviting my family and friends along to these activities.
I was giving someone else an opportunity by inviting them because they might not have otherwise learned about these events. After that, whenever I saw a flyer promoting a local event, I would take one or two and pass them around, but it didn’t quite end there.
I had been more involved in my community by attending these activities, but I wanted to be an active member. I wanted to be a member of the organizations that planned these activities and observe how each event brought the neighborhood closer together.
This is where I first learned about HeartLove Place, a nonprofit that, according to its mission statement, “connects communities through Christ to empower individuals, motivate families, and build stronger neighborhoods.”
After joining HeartLove, I began to love going out more.
Even my brothers had an opportunity to participate by going to HeartLove’s summer camp. By the time the camp was through, they emphasized how much fun they had and how excited they were to return the following year.
HeartLove is a great example of how to unite a community, and I’m happy to say that I was a part of it.
However, that is not the only way I have contributed to my neighborhood. I also became involved in uniting my community by supporting the Earn & Learn program, a summer job program for teens and young adults in the city.
With my first job site being a newly opened park, Earn & Learn helped me learn about all the new attractions that had opened in my community.
Knowing this, I informed two of my close friends who later joined employment as well!
I felt happy with myself since I was able to interest two other teenagers in what was happening in the city.
I am still active with HeartLove as of 2023, and I continue to attend several community-based events like the back-to-school gatherings.
Even though I have been contributing, I truly want to make it known that everyone in this city can contribute by listening to the ideas I want to convey in the hope that they will eventually be put into action.
First off, it is no secret that there has been strain in the relationship between the police and the neighborhoods. But I genuinely want to see a shift.
I want the police to relaunch the baseball card program to promote connection and lessen stigma.
Through my parents, I learned that this was a program highly promoted in the ’80s and the early ’90s. During this initiative, officers would go around handing out baseball cards to children and talking to them about avoiding drugs, gangs, and acts of violence.
I believe these can help create unity by showing kids that there are other ways to put themselves out there in the community, without adhering to violence.
Overall, I think that by helping to keep locals — especially young people — out of trouble and more community-oriented, all of these events will contribute to the good of the neighborhood and promote unity within it.
I’m happy to be able to share how I work to create a secure and unified community, and I want to see others do the same in the foreseeable future.
Honorable 2nd Place: Ryon Davis, 17, recent graduate of Pius High School, now a freshman at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
As a young man of God, I’m reminded that to be a faithful steward of my gifts. I must serve others (1 Peter 4:10).
I’ve done this most effectively within my school and church communities.
During my junior year, I joined a group called REDgen.
The mission of this club was to provide peer support to students who dealt with challenges that impacted their mental health.
I enjoyed my time with this team as a trusted peer specialist.
I was also a school ambassador, which allowed me to hone my mentorship skills.
I attended high school fairs to promote my school, served as a host for student-shadow days, and created safe spaces that allowed incoming freshmen to feel comfortable with their high school experience.
This was a great experience as I could help mentor the younger generation.
I also enjoy volunteering in a variety of capacities within my church. I can be found packing groceries for our monthly grocery giveaway, leading small groups in our youth ministry, assisting children in learning challenging choreography on our praise dance team, providing assistance during special events, and even working the cameras for our media team. I even once stepped in to assist a camera crew while attending a youth summit.
If I’m honest, I’ve learned better to understand myself in my service to my community. It brings me great joy to support the needs of others while stewarding my gifts in a way that pleases God.
What can be done to better ensure the safety of our neighborhoods and community?
If we want to ensure a safer community, the people of Milwaukee have to bridge the generational gaps that exist.
Discourse must continue to find solutions for the problems we face. The older generation must learn to trust the younger generation while the younger learns to listen.
The people of this city need to work as a team for the safety and betterment of the place we call home. When we judge each other, we’re only bringing each other down, so why do it? Tearing our fellow citizens down only creates more violence in our neighborhood.
We must move as one, working to preserve the beautiful place we live in. I’m reminded of a quote by rapper Common that says, “It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy.”
The city is made of many people, each part of varying generations. When we can work together in harmony, only then can we ensure the safety of our neighborhood and our community.
In what aspects has gun control, or lack thereof, affected your daily life?
Gun control has affected my daily life not only as a teenager but as a Black male. Whenever I turn on the news, I’m often met with stories of violent young Black men who choose to solve arguments with weapons like guns.
This stigma that people like me are dangerous has caused me to get certain looks from those around me.
Problems like gun control have also taken away the opportunities for the younger generation to have fun. For instance, people under the age of 18 can’t hang out at Mayfair Mall.
I understand there have been a series of fights, but not all young people are like that. Even driving out to suburban areas can be a hassle as they don’t want you there.
My brother and I enjoy skating around Wauwatosa, but you may not know that as an outsider looking in. Some may just categorize us as just two young Black men who are up to no good.
Although I’ve never owned a gun, stereotypes of those who do have continued to put an unfair target on my back.
If you were in a position of power, what would you do to create a safer city?
If I were in a position of power to create a safer city, I’d create more areas of intervention.
I believe that the biggest problem in the city right now is our misguided youth, so these centers can serve as alternatives to being in activities of violence.
Sometimes it seems like the people of Milwaukee spend more time judging the youth than providing them with outlets.
Could you imagine if the Kia Boys were given jobs within the trade as technicians and mechanics?
That alone can show the power of brilliance of the younger generation. It’s so easy to say discouraging things about other generations, but it takes a strong will to see the good in them. If we want to create a safer city, we have to start with the children.
The children are not only our future but our solution to some of the major problems in this city.