Youth speak out at Violence Prevention Conference

16-year-old, Rafael Lopez, has served time in Monterey County’s Juvenile Hall, twice. He said his involvement with the wrong crowd was what ultimately led him there. “I was just making mistakes that were not worth it,” said Lopez.

Wednesday afternoon, adults attended the 2nd Annual Violence Prevention Conference in Salinas. It was there that they listened to Rafael’s story and tried to learn how to help kids who fall down similar paths.

“We rarely take enough time to reflect and so creating a space where it’s all about reflection is critical and important. People have a chance to talk about, ‘Okay, we’ve heard from great youth. They’re raising some of these issues. What do you think about that? What can we start doing in our organizations to adapt to the real needs of youth?'” said Jose Arreola, Director of Community Alliance for Safety and Peace.

While the goal of the conference was to create solutions for at-risk youth, just this week Governor Gavin Newsom proposed to shut down California’s juvenille prisons. He called them a “ludicrous” cost burden to the state.

Local law enforcement said, for now, they are focused on what youth need, today.

“This is just another opportunity that we have to listen to our youth, and to listen critically, and take away what we can do better and how we can be better,” said Chief Abdul Pridgen with Seaside Police Department.

Several attendees said they have been to similar conferences, before, but hearing from the youth themselves makes this one unique. Many described the experience as eye-opening.

“Their story is going to help somebody down the line, down the road, and we all have one,” said Debbie Aguilar, Director of ‘A Time for Grieving and Healing.’

Rafael said he hopes to help others and live a life that he is proud of. “I realized that I can make some better choices and that’s when I grew up the most,” said Lopez.