I destroyed a community

Over the past decade, a group called Youth ALIVE! has worked to stop the needless deaths of hundreds of Oakland youths. The organization also works to end retaliatory cycles of gangland violence and to raise up peer educators who teach young people to make peaceful choices.

EMILIO MENA

Adam Hanson interviewed several of the youths involved. Interviews were recorded on location.

“I destroyed a community … I had to come back and help rebuild it.”

Mena grew up in East Oakland. He was deeply entrenched in a gang until a mentor helped him out of his dangerous lifestyle. “I destroyed a community. I pushed drugs into this community, … [so] as a man, I had to come back and help rebuild it,” Mena says...

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