It never stops amazing me how fast the kids in my neighborhood are growing up... I mean the 6 year old on our street could probably school you in gangbanger slang and foul language. He knows and understands words that I didn't even know existed until I got to high school. I have heard him say "fuck" in casual conversation like he has been using it for 30 years!
This is a query that I have been pondering for some time now and sadly the answer is short and simple... the kids are raising themselves! it's the solution that is an ongoing problem. The kids in my neighborhood (by kids I mean the children under the age of 12) live a hard life from the start and understand aspects of life that few of us are ever exposed to. Many of them have had the gas, water or electricity turned off... Been homeless, hungry, parentless or had their father inprisoned for a major crime...
I have had conversations with a 9 year old from the neighborhood that refused to tell me where he was living. I ended up following the kid home and to my surprise he was living in an abandoned house with his mother and what I believe was his younger sister. No electricity, water or gas... I recognized his mother as a client from the foodbank but never realized she was squatting in an abandoned house without utilities or windows. This absolutely tore my heart to pieces and the fact that there was very little that I could do to remediate the situation was the real killer. Shortly after I figured all of this out his mother stopped coming to the foodbank and their squat was boarded back up and they are now gone. I keep replaying how I would of handled the issue if presented with this type of situation again. Could I have helped them... Probably... Would they have given me the opportunity to help... Maybe...
I saw the mother at the foodbank one last time before they dissapeared. I had prepared a special package for them containing as much ready-to-eat food as I could fit into her cart. I also took the opportunity to give her a business card for the Crisis Resolve Network and Told her if she ever needed anything she could find me on Whitney avenue. This was the last time I saw her.

I can't believe that in this day and age with all of the government funded non-profit organizations and american citizens with any extra money in the bank that there are still people in this country who are hungry or homeless. I can't tell you how many times I have been told "What you are doing is amazing" but in reality I am not doing anything special, in fact I am doing what I think everyone should be doing. I mean really... do you need a 62" flat screen tv or need to eat a $20 steak when your neighbor has nothing to eat. Sure some people can help the fact that they are homeless but the vast majority of them are just down on their luck. It absolutely disgusts me when I see someone in a $80,000 dollar car or wearing $500 dollars worth of clothes. You could probably feed the homeless on the entire east coast for a day with $80,000 dollars!

I think you need to think about what is more important to you...  Having extra cash or feeding and clothing your neighbors, This seems so brainless to me it's ridiculous, a dollar means nothing...  it is nothing more than a piece of paper taking up space in your wallet but to a homeless person a dollar could be the difference between starving for another night or a feast.

The kids in my neighborhood have probably had it tougher than anyone who is reading this! They have had friends, brothers or sisters murdered in cold blood! I don't think I truelly understood death until my teenage years but these kids understand and experience death before elementary school. When I swear on something to describe truth I say "I swear to God" but when the kids in Wilkinsburg want to swear to god they simply use the term "Boys". An example would be "Boys, I didn't have anything to do with that". I recently learned that this is a way of saying they swear on their dead friends or friends that have been murdered. This may seem silly coming from a 10 year old but sadly they have as much rights to use this as the 30 year old gangsters who started saying it 10 years ago.

I find it heartbreaking to see 6 and 7 year old kids who have more street experience than anyone I grew up with. When I was 6 I was learning how to throw a baseball but the kids on my street are learning gang signs and the different calibers hand guns come in. Ask any 6 year old in the suburbs what a "tre-eight" or a "Tech-Nine" is and you will probably get blank stares but in my neighborhood not only will you get the make and model of the gun you will also get a detailed description of the weapon as well.

So how am I supposed to keep the kids acting like kids? Is it worth trying to shelter them from the violence surrounding them on a daily basis? I am not sure, all I can do is remind them that they are still kids and they should play like kids. When I had toy guns growing up we used them to play army but the neighborhood kids play cops and robbers...  The only problem is none of them want to be the cop they will literally fight over who gets to be the robber...

I think the only hope kids in urban settings have is positive rolemodels in their neighborhoods. People who can teach the boys how to be men and the girls how to be ladies. In most of the cases I see with the local kids I do not think a fatherly figure would help. Like I have said before the father is usually the parent that is not around anymore and the mothers usually teach the kids not to trust their fathers. I think the answer is in the big brother, big sister side of the family. Most of the kids in our neighborhood really need a older role model that is as much like them as possible. Someone who can teach them about normal and street life, sometimes ex-cons and ex-gangbangers are the only people who could ever teach these kids life skills.

Until some of the young men living in these blighted areas of our cities step up and start attempting to be positive role models for the youth in our communities things are only going to get worse. Things need to change, every kid deserves a childhood. Every child needs a role-model whether it is a good person or a bad one we all have a responsibility to teach these children to the best of our abilities.

Peace - Chris Condello