BALTIMORE — Dakarai Baldwin was a victim of a triple shooting in Baltimore.
After his death, his mother, Ebony McClenny, made it her mission to change the lives of other kids so they don’t go down a bad path, something she says she wishes she had done for her son.
“My son was 17, and he was shot and killed in Baltimore in 2022. So it led me to want to start a nonprofit [where] I work with youth and young adults in the city. Just trying to help them overcome adversity that they face on a daily basis," says Ebony McClenny.
She createdSurviving Our Neighborhoods or S.O.N.
The purpose is to shape the lives of young kids and help them cope with traumatic experiences they may have in life.
Darren Rogers says adults need to realize how the violence in the city is affecting the youth.
He says most people have not experienced what young people are dealing with today.
“They’ve never been in schools where you know guns are prevalent. They’ve never experienced the death of individuals on a consistent basis, where it wasn’t even room to breathe," says Darren Rogers.
13-year-old Antonio Woods Jr says he likes coming to these weekly sessions. He says he learned the importance of journaling, and it has been helping him.
“Yes, because it helps me write down how I’m feeling or say what I’m doing and what I want to do better at," says Antonio Woods Jr.
Brian Lee, who is 15 years old, says he has already seen a change in himself by being here.
“Bringing me out of my shell, and then also just me expressing myself because emotions are held back, and I think it’s better to express yourself more than to hold it back," says Brian Lee.
Rogers says most of the kids he sees in programs like this one want better lives, and having this type of guidance is huge.
“I don’t believe the hype that they are all tough or they consider themselves to be gangsters. I see that they’re afraid, right, they’re afraid and they’re concerned for their safety," he says.
“I talked about my anxiety attack. I didn’t really tell anybody about it, but telling someone about it, and they may call me myself down because some people don’t know how to calm yourself down was a good thing for me," says Brian Lee.
Ebony McClenny says she hopes she can heal the trauma these teens experience so they can live better lives.
“We encourage them and inspire them that, hey, you know even though you see these adversities every day, you can survive. You can survive your neighborhood. You can push yourself," says Ebony McCLenny.
She says she is also proud of how far her non-profit has come in one year.
