A spirited group of students kicked off the national Y2Y campaign at Pinellas County Job Corps today. This Youth2Youth initiative seeks to talk about violence, drug use and mental health in our community and to empower each other to make healthy choices. The Y2Y leaders on campus acted out skits about situations that could lead to fighting or especially bad gossip and how to prevent this from happening.

Everyone on campus got a t-shirt to wear on Fridays that says “Break the Silence” on the front and lists a host of things from bullying, domestic violence, substance abuse and more as topics to create conversations around and focus on solutions.

Center Director Lana Kite told the youth that this is a student-led initiative to help stop violence, trauma and addiction.  “You are tomorrow’s leaders. How you want the world to look is your choice.”