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Description
Councilmember Derek Green (At Large) sits down with Brian Ellis, Ph.D., Board chairman and mentor for ManUpPHL, to discuss what the nonprofit is doing to help address the gun violence epidemic in Philadelphia.
A
Hello
and
happy
new
year
and
welcome
to
another
episode
of
public
comment.
I'm
councilmember
at
large,
derrick
green,
the
scourge
of
violence
in
our
city
unfortunately
continues.
We
are
witnessing
the
decimation
of
an
entire
generation.
Our
youth
are
killing
and
being
killed
at
inconceivable
rates,
taking
philadelphia
back
to
a
level
of
violence
that
we
have
not
seen
in
32
years
as
many
community
organizers
and
city
officials
try
to
hone
in
on
viable
solutions
to
end
this
epidemic.
A
B
C
A
A
A
Now
the
work
that
you're
doing
with
mana
mana
phl,
you
recently
did
a
study
really
listening
to
the
streets
and
talking
with
some
of
the
young
people,
young
men
in
particular,
who
were
involved
in
the
violence
that
we
see
in
the
city
of
philadelphia.
So
what
was
your
experience
in
doing
this
academic
study
and
talking
to
young
people
impacted
by
gun,
violence.
D
Yeah,
I
thought
it
was
really
important
that
we
conducted
this
type
of
study.
You
know
for
for
a
long,
a
lot
of
a
long
time.
I
think
many
of
us.
You
know
we
come
up
with
solutions
and
recommendations,
but
we
need
to
ask
ourselves
the
questions.
Have
we
ever
talked
to
the
young
people
that
are,
quite
frankly,
perpetrators
and
victims
of
this
type
of
violence?
D
Yeah
I
mean
a
lot
of
these
themes
won't
be
surprising
to
many,
but
again
when
you
dive
deep
into
research.
You
know
these
are
what
really
emerged,
and
these
are
things
that
we
need
to
act
upon.
So
there
were
about
eight
themes
that
we
identified
in
total
number
one
being
trauma.
You
know
we,
quite
frankly,
these
young
folks
are,
you
know,
suffering
from
trauma
and
and
we
need
to
kind
of
find
a
way
to
kind
of
support
them.
In
that
regard,
another
theme
was
family
influence.
D
You
know
it
was
interesting
because
you
know
we
talked
about
praying
grandmas
and,
and
we
talked
about
the
influence
from
fathers
and
uncles
and
and
people
in
community
was
really
important.
The
third
theme
was
relationships
you
know,
and
for
me,
this
kind
of
stood
out
just
because
when
we
think
of
relationships
you
know
I
thought
about
that
familiar
relationships,
but
they
were
really
talking
about
relationships
within
their
communities
with
their
peers
and
their
friends,
which
will
hold
a
lot
of
weight.
D
Another
thing
was
self-worth.
You
know
a
lot
of
these
young
folks
there's
an
internal
sense
of
not
being
good
enough.
You
know,
and-
and
that
emerged
as
well
talking
to
these
young
men
through
the
study.
Communal
limitations
was
the
fifth
theme
and
communal
limitations.
You
know,
there's
an
infrastructure
that
breeds
poverty
and
crime
and
and
some
of
the
things
that
we're
seeing
on
a
daily
basis.
D
The
sixth
theme
was
communications.
You
know
we
know,
communications
is
a
vibrant
part
of
everyday
living
and
the
lack
thereof,
you
know,
creates
challenges
within
our
communities.
Another
theme
was
formal
education.
You
know
not
to
be
overly
critical,
but
we
know
there's
some
challenges
in
public
education,
and
you
know
the
fact
that
these
young
men
were
able
to
identify
education
as
a
barrier.
You
know
speaks
a
lot
and
then,
lastly,
it
was
real
time
engagement.
D
You
know,
being
able
to
meet
these
young
folks
where
they
are.
You
know
again,
I
think
you
know
a
lot
of
the
old
people
from
my
generation.
We
can
sit
down
and
act
like
we
have
solutions
and
and
think
about
the
problem,
but
listening
to
them,
we
need
to
kind
of
meet
them
where
they
are,
which
is
really
important.
A
And
that's
why
I
thought
you
know
this
study
was
so
important
because
you're
actually
talking
with
you,
know
the
young
men
who
are
getting
involved
and
sometimes
often
victims
themselves
of
gun
violence.
You
know,
city
council
recently
just
did
a
a
study,
a
hundred
shooters
to
study,
and
I
saw
a
lot
of
same
themes
in
that
study
in
your
report
and
talking
to
young
people
and
in
those
conversations,
what
are
some
of
the
ideas
that
they
provided
as
real
solutions
to
address
gun
violence
in
philadelphia.
D
Yeah
and
that's
why
you
know
we
thought
it
was
important
to
conduct
this
study
a
research
study,
because
you
know
part
of
this
is
going
to
you
know,
evolve
to
you
know,
recommendations
and
at
any
time
that
there's
any
ask
you
know
you
want
to
have
that
strong
foundation
as
to
kind
of
why
these
recommendations
emerge,
which
was
really
important.
So
ultimately,
through
this
study
you
know
and
talking
to
the
young
folks,
five
key
recommendations
emerge
from
the
study
and
I
now
share
some
of
those
with
you
right
now.
D
Recommendation
number
one
was
a
partnership
with
10
incarcerated
leaders
within
10
communities,
community
agencies
to
address
gun
violence
from
the
inside
out.
It's
really
important
that
you
know
you
talk
about
listening
to
the
streets.
You
know
those
folks
currently
incarcerated,
they
they
understand
the
streets
and
they
can
provide
mentorship
and
guidance
to
some
of
these
young
folks
out
here.
D
The
second
recommendation,
which
was
really
critical,
was
create
300
jobs
tailored
to
those
who
are
most
at
risk
from
being
involved
in
gun
violence.
So
again,
this
is
really
an
ask
of
the
private
sector
and
the
business
and
industry.
You
know
to
provide
living
wages
for
these
young
men.
You
know
we're
talking
30
35
000
a
year,
so
they
can
really.
You
know,
live
and
and
fulfill
some
of
their
hopes
and
aspirations.
D
D
A
third
recommendation
was
to
create
a
parallel
educational
experience
for
middle
and
high
school
students
who
are
at
risk
and
impact
by
gun
violence.
Again,
you
know
we
know
some
of
the
challenges
currently
within.
You
know
the
formal
education
system
here
in
philadelphia.
You
know,
but
you
know
philadelphia-
is
a
history,
a
city
full
of
major
universities,
and
they
do
some
really
good
things.
So
how
about
partnerships
where
we
can
really
start
building
some
of
those
bridges
to
kind
of
help?
These
young
people
almost
a
parallel
educational
experience
where
they
can
really.
D
You
know
we
can
share
with
them
life
skills
and
how
to
you
know,
maybe
if
they
want
to
matriculate
into
higher
education
or
even
to
the
workforce,
but
really
grasping
them
early
on
in
their
you
know,
adolescent
years
and
moving
forward.
The
fourth
recommendation
was
to
create
what
we
call
mental
health,
substations
and
communities
heavily
impacted
by
violence.
You
know
again,
this
speaks
to
the
trauma.
D
You
know
it's
one
thing
to
tell
some
of
these
folks
who
suffer
from
trauma
to
say:
hey,
yeah,
jump
on
the
bus,
we'll
meet
you
how
about
we
meet
them,
where
they
are
so
to
really.
If
we
can
develop
these
substations
within
these
communities,
you
know
worked
and
trained
by
people
that
look
like
the
people
in
the
community.
Suffering
from
this
trauma
would
be
really
important
and
critical.
And,
lastly,
you
know
we
want
to
train
and
develop
what
we
call
resource
connectors.
D
You
know
these
are
people
that
are
engaged
with
gun,
violence
and
they'll
be
tangible
alternatives,
so
people
again
talk
to
and
be
mentors
but
again
they're
going
to
live
in
these
communities.
You
know
we'll
train
them
up
to
be
able
to
respond
to
some
of
the
challenges
that
face
these
communities,
so
those
were
the
five
recommendations,
excellent.
A
Excellent
and
I've
had
a
chance
to
listen
to
some
of
the
stories
from
some
of
the
participants.
You
know
your
partner
in
this
work.
Solomon
jones
who's,
the
executive
director
of
mana
phl,
has
also
had
the
show
in
wrds
had
some
of
the
young
men
interviewed
on
on
his
show,
and
I've
really
heard
the
passion
and
some
of
the
pain
and
some
experiences
from
listening
to
some
of
those.
A
The
interviews
on
solomon's
show
were
there
any
specific
stories
or
perspectives
that
you
got
out
of
that
those
conversation
that
really
kind
of
kind
of
really
signifies
some
of
the
challenges.
Some
of
the
things
that
talked
about
that
talk
or
touch
on
those
kind
of
eight
themes
or
those
five
recommendations
for
this
that
came
out
of
this
report.
D
A
D
You
know
that
was
a
theme
that
emerged
as
well
when
you
kind
of
hear
the
passion
and
the
story
about
some
of
the
experiences
you
know
trauma.
You
know,
mental
health
is
real.
You
know,
I
I
think
you
know
to
hear
these
young
men
really
pour
their
hearts
out
and
I
think
for
me
what
was
most
impactful
from
some
of
these
conversations
was
the
fact
that
you
know,
I
think
they
understand
and
recognize
people
want
to
help.
D
A
Now,
when
you
talk
about
peer
influence
now,
what
aspect
or
what
influence
did
social
media
have
in
any
of
the
conversations
we're
talking
to
young
men
because
it
seemed
like
social
media
has
really
been
a
challenge?
That's
helped
to
fuel.
Unfortunately,
some
of
the
gun,
violence
and
some
of
the
challenges
that
some
of
the
young
men
have
been
dealing
with.
D
Yeah
yeah,
some
of
the
things
that
that
came
through
in
the
study
was,
you
know
how
they
use,
how
these
young
folks
use
instagram
as
a
ways
to
identify
and
locate.
You
know
different,
you
know
people
or
individuals
or
groups,
and
a
lot
of
the
time
you
know
they
use.
You
know
this
instagram
as
almost
like
a
a
gps.
D
You
know
to
really
identify,
maybe
people
that
they
have
issues
with
or
beats
with,
and
you
know
I
come
from
a
different
generation.
That
was
something
that
you
know
before
the
study
I
couldn't
even
fathom,
but
you
know
a
lot
of
people
they
go
to
social
media
and,
and
they
talk
about
the
different
licks
right.
You
know
these
are
the
things
that
that's
the
language
that
they've
been
using
to.
A
D
Yeah,
I
would
tell
you
start
with
the
on
the
website:
mana
phl.org,
you
know
it's
a
great
opportunity.
You'll
see
some
of
the
great
work
that
the
group
is
doing.
You'll
get
a
chance
to
kind
of
read
the
study
and
complete
and
and
really
just
the
website
will
kind
of
guide
you
to
next
steps
as
far
as
mentorship
opportunities
and
if
you're
a
young
man
who
really
wants
to
get
involved
as
well.
D
A
B
A
Thank
you
for
joining
us
for
another
episode
of
public
comment.
Next
time,
we'll
delve
into
the
budget
process
and
the
mayor's
budget
proposals
for
the
upcoming
fiscal
year.
Remember
your
input
is
vital
to
the
change
in
progress.
We
wish
to
see
in
philadelphia
this
spring
tune
in
to
budget
hearings
as
they
get
underway
on
comcast
channel
64
or
verizon
bios
channels,
40
and
41.
You
can
also
watch
us
online
at
phl
council
dot
com
forward,
slash
watch
until
next
time.
I'm
council,
member
large,
derek
green,
be
well
stay
safe
and
take.