Nonprofit reaches out to youth to help end the cycle of gun violence
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PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — The Love is Stronger founder speaks out about the work being done on Portland’s streets to stop the dramatic increase in shootings.
Lionel Irving says he served 15 years in prison for crimes related to his gang involvement in Portland. Now he’s turned his life around spending hours with kids and their families every week to provide a support system, so they don’t pick up a gun.
Thirteen people have died from shootings in Portland in the last two months, an alarming number from the Portland Police Bureau.
Irving says outreach to youth at risk for gun violence is the community’s responsibility.
“It ain’t the police’s job. We don’t even want the police to come and get them. We want to identify them so we can get them some mental health treatment, so we can make them into productive citizens,” he said. “We don’t want to feed them into the system.”
Every week Irving says he’s working in communities, building relationships and mentoring to help kids in the right direction.
“Let’s get to some of these shooting sites where there was households at so we can see some of these kids because a lot of the people that get left behind when somebody shoot, the people usually come look for the victim who got shot and maybe the parents might need some help right? But what about the little brothers and sisters?” Irvin said. “We want to get the kids that are getting influenced by that might be on the fence of being a shooter, or might be pressured into being a shooter because ain’t got nowhere else to go.”
He’s now leading nonprofit Love is Stronger, which is focused on community healing, accountability and reducing the recidivism rate for youth and adults.
Last weekend marked its new campaign calling for a bullet-free weekend.
“We’re going to the kids who ain’t going to school, who they might have a gun, who they are looking out for the police officers,” Irving said. “We are the ground floor guys, you know that’s why I say we’re soldiers of love because we’re at the dangerous point of it.”
There are other organizations doing outreach work as well, like the nonprofit No Hate Zone.
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