(WXYZ) — As we continue to follow the tragic events in the Oxford School Shooting, in tonight's 7 UpFront segment we're focusing on firearm violence.
Joining us to talk about it is the Co-Director of the Institute for Firearm Injury prevention and Co-Principal Investigator of the National Center For School Safety Marc Zimmerman.
You can see the full interview in the video player above.
"This is certainly serious business. Our program, called Youth Empowerment Solutions is basically a program for middle school students, although high school students are engaged as well. It's an afterschool program, it's an 8 to 10 week, two hours after school day. They learn to think critically about their community, connect to their community, do some community analysis, they do a fun photovoice project. It's all very active learning," Zimmerman says. "The last thing we want them to do is come to school after school and do more schooling, so we try and make it fun. And then it all culminates in a community improves project, and they've done murals, community gardens, they also made pocket parks. They've also created community celebrations, all in the name of improving their community and preventing violence. And we found, when we compare them to the youth who are just going to the regular after school program, also called the control condition, three months and one year post, we found those kids that were involved in YES were less likely to report aggressive and violent behaviors and were more likely to report more positive behaviors, like school engagement."
