LEXINGTON, Ky. — The city of Lexington is reporting a downward curve in shootings and overall gun-related deaths since this time in previous years. More efforts to continue that trend are coming out of nonprofits like Exhilarating Inc.
Mattie Morton is one of Lexington’s leaders, showing young people the way. She is a licensed social worker, a former city administrator, and the founder of Exhilarating Inc.
The nonprofit aims help young people living in high-crime environments or with domestic situations that could lead to dangerous situations.
The group works with homeless youth, financially underprivileged kids, and those impacted by violence in the city.
Morton says that the young people they focus on supporting are exposed to disparities like living home to home.
“I got this program because of the homeless rate and the crime rate of youth in that age group. Because what people don’t know is that age group is couch surfing. And basically what they’re doing is sleeping on different couches every night and don’t have a place to live,” Morton said.
More obstacles include a lack of access to their personal information, making finding a job or higher learning opportunities nearly impossible.
Morton says it sometimes can lead to them resorting to other means to get by, including illegal activity and possibly even violence.
“I know the thing about that age group, this is your age group that’s going to do whatever they have to do to survive, whether it be a crime, whether it be, is any time for survival is the way you put it,” Morton explained. “So with Transitioning to Adulthood, we take those youth and we teach them skills for transitioning and we make sure they equip with what they need to get ahead.”
Recently the city’s gun violence prevention force, One Lexington, reported gun-related incidents decreasing compared to previous years,
The anti-violence group granted $100,000 toward prevention among a dozen of the city’s nonprofits and services, like the Transitioning to Adulthood program. For five weeks, mentors and volunteers coach kids on lessons on how to budget at the grocery store, help wounded individuals, and more.
Volunteer and peer mentor Tonya Walker recently joined their mission.
“The part that I love about her program, the Transitioning to Adulthood, is that they do everything themselves as we teach them. She’ll teach them about how to get an apartment and what the deposit looks like, how you have to make sure you have your first month’s rent,” Walker said.
Morton says while continued partnerships between organizations in the city like theirs have helped make changes in many kids’ lives, a lot of prevention starts inside the homes of kids and their families.
“If more parents will be committed to making sure their youth, our young adults, get to some of these programs and participate, yes, I do think things will decrease, but it takes a commitment not only on the parents’ part but on the youth’s part as well,” Morton said about bettering solutions. “So, like I said, we’re resourceful. They’ve got to utilize it."