St. Paul – The City of St. Paul is continuing to find ways to improve the safety of children in all of St. Paul’s schools, public or otherwise.
The Goals, Not Guns program is in its second year of operation under St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and coordinated by Lynnaia Jacobsen, the office’s Community Council Manager. The program with children who live in areas of the city with high rates of gun violence, partnering with former police officer Charlie Adams to facilitate conversations with kids on how to say no to guns in their lives.
“I think what it is, what they’re missing, is that the most important part is talking about violence prevention, because that’s what’s hurting our kids right now. That’s what’s hurting our communities right now. Math and science aren’t going to save you on your walk home from school.
Since 2020, there have been 15 shootings within a block radius of St. Paul City School, including three fatal shootings, per the Trace, a non-profit journalism organization tracking gun violence across America. With that many shootings so close to the school, bringing someone like Adams in to speak with students was essential so they could have someone who knows how to listen to them about this heavy subject.
“We wanted him to come with values, talk on how individuals make safe choices, and conflict resolution, building positive communities, just all the things that avoid gang violence. How to say no, assertively but safely,” said Jacobsen.
The creative side is where Elpis Enterprises comes in to work with these students. Those who participate in the program are coming up with their own t-shirt designs, and up to five finalists have their designs voted upon by their classmates get to have them made on shirts printed by Elpis.
The opportunity to make shirts intrigued the students at St. Paul City School to take part in it this spring. But the conversations around creating goals to avoid gun violence is what drew Maria Stokes, a paraprofessional with St. Paul City School, to bring Goals, Not Guns, to her students.
“We live in a community where we are not shy from gun violence at all, and some of our children have even been impacted by it,” said Stokes. “So I just thought that this would be such a great opportunity to get our kiddos to dive more into the outside life of what they go through and be able to make that into something positive.”
As important as it is for these students to have conversations about a topic that impacts them more frequently outside the classroom than some of their school subjects. Jacobsen stressed the importance of balancing these heavy conversations with a creative outlet.
“I do believe that it gives kids an outlet to express themselves, and a lot of their expression and how they felt about things came out in those t-shirts. Well, I think it definitely challenges people, it definitely challenges the kids to go into deep thought, and how their messaging and how their words can make an impact,” said Jacobsen.
Xiomara Mejia is an eighth grader at St. Paul City Middle School, and her design was voted on by her classmates as their favorite out of the 35 that were submitted. The design process was something new for Meija, and although it seemed a bit daunting at first, she grew to appreciate it how her art can have meaning with others.
“When I was first trying the design, I was thinking I’m not this good at drawing and stuff, and now that I know like I want to do it,” said Mejia. “I just want to say that no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, you can still do awesome things in life. Even if you aren’t good at things.”
As fun as it was for Mejia and her classmates to make these t-shirt designs, the conversations they had with Adams were just as important for them.
“I would connect with Charlie every day after the class for days, two, three, and four, and he always had a new testimony on how it went, and it always went positively,” said Jacobsen.
“I think once they had seen that we had these speakers come in and we had Charlie come in to really dig deep into the kids’ brains. I think that’s when they really realized that this was something serious that we were doing. So that was really cool to see the kids take it seriously,” Stokes said.
The experience Stokes and her students had with Goals, not Guns, is one they would easily welcome back again. The strong partnership that this program established between St. Paul City School and the Office of Neighborhood Safety hopes to bear more fruit for the students at this school to become better equipped with knowledge on how to talk about gun violence.
“Any opportunity for these kids to get something positive I want to be all there for it.’ If she even thinks of something not as big as this, even if it’s just Charlie just coming to speak with the kiddos, I would still want some type of work with her. This was really great, I had parents come out for this. It was really nice,” said Stokes.
“I really do feel like when kids have a moment to shine or they have a moment to just be heard, they thrive. And they’re more likely to listen and let you help them and to let you guide them when they’re first given that opportunity to express themselves,” Jacobsen said.
If you’d like to support St. Paul City School students and purchase the shirt made by Mejia, you can do so by following this link. All proceeds from buying these shirts go directly back to St. Paul City School and support their students.
