Q&A
Council Member Yusef Salaam follows up with advocate testimony
2:21:32
ยท
165 sec
Council Member Yusef Salaam reflects on additional steps to support vulnerable communities through education and awareness.
- Salaam emphasizes the importance of classroom education for vulnerable individuals
- The council member suggests educating friends to assist vulnerable community members
- Community advocates stress the need to openly address issues rather than ignore them
- A Safe Horizon representative highlights the effectiveness of creating sex-positive environments for youth
- The discussion touches on the importance of open dialogue about sensitive topics like sex
Yusef Salaam
2:21:32
I just wanna commend you all for standing up.
2:21:37
I'm I'm I don't really have a question.
2:21:38
I don't think.
2:21:39
I'm just thinking about what else can we do.
2:21:44
And I'm thinking about that from the perspective of even classroom education, you know, that allows for folks who are vulnerable who may not necessarily know or understand what it is that they are experiencing, and also for friends who might be able to stand in that gap to to assist in some way, form, or fashion.
2:22:09
So, I'm I'm not sure if we if we have all of the answers that really, really speak to the need of the vulnerable communities that you all are a part of and supporting.
2:22:25
But whatever we can do, I'm sure we wanna do all that we can for that towards that effort.
Mari Moss
2:22:31
I would just like to speak to that very quickly.
2:22:35
We just can't keep sweeping things under the rug.
2:22:37
We keep ignoring the issues, the elephants in the room, so to speak, just to keep things comfortable and copacetic.
2:22:45
And our community is very close knit.
2:22:47
Everybody pretty much knows everybody, you know.
2:22:50
Our churches are like families, but we have to address the issues and not sweep them under the rug.
2:22:56
We have to talk about them actively.
2:22:59
We need to have forums about them if we need to, but we need to protect the vulnerable and stop protecting perpetuators of violence.
Kathleen Baer
2:23:12
I just
Sebastien Vante
2:23:12
wanna add, one of the things that we found very effective in the population that we work with, specifically runaway and homeless youth in our drop in centers, but also in our shelters, is that we create a very sex positive environment, which allows for young folks to kind of engage staff in conversations that may seem really sensitive.
2:23:30
And in that, we may determine or find out a little deeper, things around, like, some of the things that some of our young folks are experiencing.
2:23:38
So I think kinda creating that environment that allows young folks to to, you know, reach out and touch and connect with staff around things around sexual health or things that they may be experiencing that they're not quite understanding make I I I feel like has created a better connection in in allowing us to connect them to appropriate resources.
2:24:00
So just to kinda add to that point what you were making about school, I think, you know, not, you know, demonizing certain things or criminalizing certain things, but allowing for that kind of open dialogue and conversations around things that we consider sensitive, like sex.
2:24:15
So just putting that out there.