With three Louisville teenagers shot in one week, local youth organizations are ramping up their efforts to save lives.
The separate shootings happened just 11 days into the new month. On Feb. 4, a 14-year-old boy was injured in a drive-by shooting in Chickasaw; a double shooting on Feb. 8, left another teenage boy dead at a park in the California neighborhood; and on Monday night, a 13-year-old girl survived being hit by gunfire in Valley Station.
“I’ve suffered that loss, and I don’t want another mother to have to suffer and walk in the shoes that I’m walking in. That’s why I go so hard,” said Rose Smith, founder of the ACE Project.
For more than a decade since her own son’s tragic killing, Smith has worked to stop the cycle of senseless violence through positive programs exposing youth to entrepreneurship, community, and compassion.
While some young people are empowered to change, Smith knows they need to reach more, so they’re expanding.
“I’m excited to announce that we have obtained a woodworking space,” said Smith.
With a motto of “working with the hands they’re dealt,” the Men in the Making initiative targeting 12- to 19-year-olds will now be housed at the Delta Foundation in Portland.
It’s incorporating mentorship, brotherhood, education and skill development at a facility that already offers those invaluable resources for at-risk youth athletes.
“The more they’re here, the less they’re out of trouble,” said Wes Hinton, founder of the DELTA Foundation.
Founder Wes Hinton plans to keep young people permanently on the right path after officially buying the building, which they’ve leased on Portland Avenue since 2019, with a six-figure grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation.
It not only cements another investment in west Louisville, but will foster more collaboration among nonprofits whose aligned missions are to support and save the generations to come.
“The best thing that we can do and the best things that organizations here can do is offer them a safe space for a long amount of time,” said Hinton.
Both organizations are accepting youth to be part of their programs.
To watch the original segment on WLKY News, visit their website HERE.
To learn more about the ACE Project, click HERE.
