Since the beginning of 2024, Elpis Enterprises has been working alongside St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety with their new program; Goals, not Guns.
Goals, not Guns, was started by Lynnaia Jacobsen, the Community Council Manager with the Office of Neighborhood Safety. Jacobsen had previously volunteered at Face to Face Academy as an instructor years ago, and her connection to the school decided to choose it as the Office of Neighborhood Safety’s pilot run on the Goals, not Guns program.
Jennifer Plum is the Academic Director and an English teacher at Face to Face Academy in Northeast St. Paul. Jacobsen selected Face to Face Academy to be a part of the Goals, Not Guns pilot program this winter as she is a former volunteer at the school.
“Essentially what it was, was to get the students to talk about gun violence and its impact on goal setting,” said Plum. “Like when there’s an incident of gun violence, young people’s ability to make plans for the future, and we wanted to get students talking about that and then have each student work on putting together a design showcased on a t-shirt.”
This became an hour-long part of the school day for 45 students at Face to Face Academy in January. The students worked alongside Plum and their art teacher Lucy Voller, to learn the basics of graphic design for their t-shirts as well as how to develop the message on these shirts through the economics of language, about goal setting, and how gun violence impacts it.
Plum said the reception of the topic becoming a unit for these students was a mixed bag at first, as there were a lot of uncomfortable connotations for a group setting for some, but others were relieved as it is a topic that weighs heavily on them.
“There wasn’t one student who hadn’t been affected by this issue. Although it has a lot of grief, loss, and trauma connected to the learning, it also came as a relief because were talking about something important and relevant in their lives,” Plum said. As the month-long unit progressed, there were revelations to Plum and Voller on how widely this impacted students their student’s lives, and their daily interactions in the classroom.
“As we cracked this topic open, it became more relevant on what the impact had on students, particularly with learning and goal setting. And this is the only thing we should be talking about. When it comes to youth in Minnesota gun violence is a huge threat, so there’s a lot of work to be done,” said Plum.
Of those 45 students, four were selected to work alongside Elpis Enterprises in making their designs for their t-shirts a reality. Tyrone Butler (Senior), Vita Lowe (Senior), Angelo Walker (Senior), and Jada Walker (Junior) were the four students at Face to Face Academy that their peers voted upon to have these printings done.
Once those designs were completed by Butler, Lowe, Angelo Walker, and Jada Walker, all the students voted once more to pick the winner to receive $300 and have their shirt design go up for sale, the proceeds of which go back to the participating schools. The Office of Neighborhood Safety provided funding for each of the students and staff at Face to Face Academy, as well as Humboldt High School, to have all of their winning shirt designs for everyone.
On April 2, a school-wide assembly was hosted at Face to Face Academy to honor the winner, Angelo Walker. Jacobsen, Elpis Enterprises Executive Director, Paul Ramsour, and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter were in attendance, among many other community members.
On April 17, the Face-to-Face Academy Podcast hosted Angelo Walker and Plum to discuss how the program went for them. On it, Angelo Walker shared his thoughts on how he felt the program went for him and his fellow students who took part in it.
“It’s been a long quarter about this strong topic,” Angelo Walker said about the Goals, not Guns program on the podcast. “Some don’t mind it but for others, it’s very powerful and they have a lot of thoughts and opinions on this. So I’m glad that we learned about
this and talked about it and made it the big topic that it is.”
Angelo Walker’s design incorporated a fist raised out of a flower bed clenching onto a microphone and in bold lettering above the microphone “Goals Up, Guns Down.’ Overlaying the flower bed in cursive lettering is a statement that reads, “Raise your voice. Make a Difference.” On the podcast, Angelo Walker describes what inspired him to go with this design.
“That’s what I really wanted to implement into my design, I just really wanted them to have a reflection of your goals are really the most important thing you can be looking forward to and a gun can take all that down. I love my design because it’s really strong
but beautiful,” said Angelo Walker.
Angelo Walker’s design along with the winning design from Humboldt High School in St. Paul, are available for purchase on Elpis Enterprises website and can be found here.
