The Joliet Y2Y team presented a new activity on Thursday called “All EYES on Me.”

The students were brought together to acknowledge their loved ones who might have been lost to violence.

The first “All EYES on Me” event was organized for the young men of the Joliet Job Corps Center. Opening remarks were made by CSIO Supervisor Nakia Brown.

“Your lives matter,” she told the students. “This is to show you that I care.”

To begin, Ms. Brown asked half of the students to stand on one side of the gym and half to stand on the other. She explained that there would be a series of simple questions, and if a student would answer “yes,” that student should walk to the line in the middle of the gym floor.

“How many have lost somebody to some type of violence?” Ms. Brown asked. Every student walked up to the line.

“How many have watched someone be murdered?” Ms. Brown asked. A huge group walked up to the line. At the end of the activity, many of the students shook each other’s hands.

“I appreciate it because you did not have to do this,” Ms. Brown said. “I don’t want you to go back to the same ways.” When she hears about the students in the future, she wants to learn that they have good jobs paying high wages in stable careers, Ms. Brown said.

“You all can do this,” Ms. Brown said as the students left the gym to have some refreshments. “You have people in your corner who say you can do this.”

The Joliet Job Corps Center’s Y2Y team has a plan with purpose: to help be a part of the solution and to put an end to youth on youth violence.