Speak Your Peace

Kristie Joseph is a summer intern at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center. She is a rising senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

 I have been interning at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center for a few weeks. Interning at CHCMC has been a positive experience. Sadasia, my co-intern, and I are learning a lot of material and we’re both grateful for the opportunity. A few weeks ago, we were given a project called Speak Your Peace. Speak Your Peace is a tool that gives people the opportunity to respond to gun violence in their neighborhood. Sadasia and I have visited 25 residents that live in the Crown Heights neighborhood. We’ve interviewed children and adults, and everyone had something different to say, but they all spoke on how their community could be improved. Two people that had the biggest impact on us were a man named Robert and a 12 year old boy named Jordan. They were completely honest, assertive, and kind. Everyone from the children to the adults had a great impact on us. Overall, this experience is very life-changing and informative, and Sadasia and I are so glad to have worked on this project.

Some pictures from our project:

“All we want is for everyone to cooperate and come together as a whole community.”

“If I could change one thing in my community, I would want to stop those who kill other people’s loved ones.”

“People have been interacting better, but the violence is surreal and needs to stop.”

“If I could change one thing in my community it would be the amount of guns that are in the streets.”