Plant City’s newest organization is focused on providing the community with better opportunities for disadvantaged youth.
With the working name You, We, Community, the newest group in the city held its first meeting last month. Led by Simmons Career Center educator Hasani Jackson and Making a Change girls mentor Kisha McDonald, You, We, Community is focused on teaching kids and teens to make good decisions.
“This new generation, they just have no direction,” Jackson said.
Jackson had planned on running for the available Plant City Commission seat but decided to focus his efforts on this latest endeavor before his name was placed on the ballot.
“We used to be afraid to curse or joke around in front of older people. Now kids don’t care,” Jackson said.
Jackson hopes that the organization will provide neutral ground for his students at Simmons. Some have turned to gangs as a way of making up for a family that they don’t have at home. Many of Jackson’s students have belonged to gangs including Sur 13 and Norte 14, the two primary gangs within the city limits.
The recent homicide of Reginald Brown, a friend of Jackson, also sparked a desire to start the group.
Their new organization isn’t just for kids and teens. Members of the community are welcome to attend.
“It’s really sad that Plant City is so small and you have communities that are broken up,” Jackson said. “They have no one to look up to. They have rappers and movie stars … it’s our job to uplift kids. Some of these kids, we’re all they have.”
McDonald hopes that by uniting kids and teens together, the community as a whole will come together.
“It’s important because our community is divided,” McDonald said. “We see negativity. It’s very important to me to see growth.”
McDonald believes that a lack of communication is one of the primary reasons for what she believes is a divide in the community, in addition to socioeconomic differences.
“It’s growing with each meeting,” McDonald said. “A lot of people get in trouble because they follow in other people’s steps. There needs to be more leaders.”
The group held its second meeting on Friday, Feb. 26. Jackson and McDonald were joined by La Red Ministries Pastor Ricky Coronado, who also wants to address the division in the community. Members of Plant City’s gangs frequently come to his church, which they see as a neutral ground.
“Most of the guys and ladies that come in are ex-gang members, ex-prostitutes,” Coronado said. “They’re trying to reconstruct their life. They’re looking for the Lord.”
Other meeting attendees, including Plant City residents Tanika Crayton, Curtis Brooks, Gerard Brown and Mutwan Sutton, hope that their involvement in the group can encourage the kids they work with to stay on the right path.
“I used to coach football,” Sutton said. “The kids looked up to me. The parents said I was a role model.”
Brooks, who coached Little League, said that he has seen a chain reaction going around with some of his old and new players. But Little League, like other groups, can provide an outlet.
You, We, Community will hold meetings at 4:30 p.m. on the first and last Friday of each month at La Red Ministries, 712 E. Alsobrook St.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.