On today’s episode, high school students will be sharing their stories about how violence has impacted them and what solutions they see for decreasing gun violence in Toledo. According to the Center for Disease Control guns were the leading cause of death for children under 19 in the United States in 2022. University of Michigan’s Youth Violence Prevention Center points out that “Racism and economic disinvestment have undermined opportunity and contributed to rising firearm violence in cities across the U.S.” Raising awareness about the root causes of gun violence is important in inspiring youth and communities to push for social change. No More Silence is one way in which youth in Toledo are hoping to get the word out to the community and inspire community members to come together in the fight to end violence in Toledo.

In the premiere episode of No More Silence, university students and adult members of the writing community will be sharing raw writing pieces they have written as part of a community empathy write that started in Nov 2024. The prompts for this writing project are songs picked by high school students as having a positive message and research information on adultism. In the month of November writers were asked to write about the following phrases often said by adults to children: “You’re so Smart for 11;” “It’s Just a stage. You’ll grow out of it;” “What do you know? You haven’t experienced anything;” and “You think this is hard? Wait until you’re an adult.”