We’re back from our youth-led Florida engagement tour, and we want you to know all about it!
Through meetings with elected officials, hosting arts events, dialoguing on police violence and more, we established new partnership and recruited over 100 new youth activists to join Team ENOUGH.
We traveled across Florida to educate young people about gun violence, connect with local, grassroots-led social justice groups, heal as a community, and support neighborhoods hit hardest by gun violence — all while having a great time. (We had our own tour bus!)
Read the recap of our tour and learn how you can get involved with Team ENOUGH. (And before you ask, yes, we’re still sweating — it was hot!)
Day 1: Addressing Police Violence in Tallahassee and Beyond
Last summer, student activists at Florida A&M (FAMU) University — one of the most prominent historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in America — organized powerfully in the nationwide movement to end police violence. We stopped in Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, to meet with FAMU activists and other local organizations for a roundtable centered around police violence and public safety, an issue that goes hand-in-hand with gun violence.
Tallahassee youth are uniquely touched by gun violence. Violent crime has been rising in the city over recent years, and its gun violence epidemic is disproportionately affecting Black youth. During our police violence forum, we talked about how the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) takes up 37% of the city budget, the largest portion given to any department. We discussed what this means for local communities and what reimagining policing in Tallahassee could look like, especially in ways that protect and empower Black, Brown, and LGBTQ youth. Members of the FAMU NAACP, Dream Defenders, Tallahassee Community Action Committee, and more shared their experiences, solutions, and how students can use legislative advocacy to create meaningful change.
This is how we will save lives: by amplifying and listening to the voices of people most impacted by gun violence, and by giving youth the tools to speak out and drive change.
Watch video footage of our police violence forum on Instagram and read more about it in coverage by ABC 27 WTXL Tallahassee.
With the Tallahassee NAACP Youth Council
This powerful event followed our morning breakfast meetings with state Rep. Allison Tant, Tallahassee City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, and staff representing state Sen. Jason Pizzo and state Sen. Loranne Ausley. We’d like to give a shout-out to all of these amazing leaders and partners in Tallahassee, including FAMU’s Alpha Kappa Alpha, who showed up to support fellow sorority sister Maisha Fields, our leader and Brady’s Vice President of Organizing!
Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha at the FAMU Pride Festival with Brady Vice President Maisha Fields (second on left).
Day 2: Orlando: Educating Young People About the Legislative Process
The legislative process can be complex to navigate. That’s especially true for young people in Florida, who are often aren’t taught about the inner workings of the state legislature and who live considerable distances away from the State Capitol in Tallahassee. But connecting with lawmakers is a key way that young people can effect change — and that’s why we established our Team ENOUGH Lobbying Collective, which is the only national, youth-led lobbying group for gun violence prevention. We train and educate you on how to advocate within the halls of power, and our Team ENOUGH Florida Lobbying Collective is now in its third iteration.
On Day 2 of our tour, we stopped in Orlando to give educational seminars on the legislative process and connect local youth to their legislators, including Rep. Guillermo Smith and Rep. Eskamani. These elected officials shared tips for how youth can hold their leaders accountable and effective ways to build progress on gun violence prevention. Every state legislative process is different, and we explained the ins-and-outs of the Florida legislature and covered ways to make the Florida legislature more accessible to young people.
David Caciedo of the Florida Student Power Network gives a breakdown of the Florida state legislature. Watch video footage on Instagram.
Team ENOUGH National Youth Lobbying Coordinator Ritika Iyer teaches the basics of nonpartisan lobbying. Learn more about the Team ENOUGH Lobbying Collective.
Later that day, we visited the Pulse Memorial to memorialize and honor the victims and survivors of the 2018 Pulse nightclub shooting.
Our visit nearly overlapped with the fifth anniversary of this tragedy, which remains the deadliest attack against the LGBTQ community in American history: 49 people, mostly young and LatinX, were murdered. It was a solemn reminder, five years later, that we must do more to disarm hate in our country.
Team ENOUGH members Alyssa Ackbar, Zion Kelly, Carolina Garcia; Executive Council members Ritika Iyer, Ivan Garcia, and Aalayah Eastmond (l-r).
Day 3: Visiting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Rallying with Survivors, the Community, and Legislators
Team ENOUGH was founded in the immediate wake of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. We lost our friends, family, and teachers — and to this day, it’s still hard for survivors to return home: Robert Schentrup lost his sister, Carmen Schentrup, and Aalayah Eastmond and Carlitos Rodriguez were in their classrooms when the gunshots erupted.
But more than three years later, we returned, together, to heal as a community through advocacy, art, music, and food at the Pine Trails Cookout. We heard from speakers, musicians, and survivors, and created a space for young people to hang out and get to know local lawmakers and organizers, including state Sen. Tina Polsky, state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, Rep. Ted Deutch, Vice Mayor of Parkland Bob Mayersohn, Mayor of Parkland Rich Walker, and Broward County School Board Member and gun violence survivor Lori Alhadeff.
It was great to join @Team_Enough at the Parkland stop of their #EnoughInFL 2021 summer bus tour. Thank you for your advocacy and your commitment to reducing gun violence! #HonorWithAction #DisarmHate pic.twitter.com/Ab35wvdHtg
— Christine Hunschofsky (@CHunschofsky) June 28, 2021
Our work can be emotionally difficult, to say the least, so it was important that we created a space for community members and Team ENOUGH to talk, heal, and rejuvenate together.
Later, we visited the memorial at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to remember and honor the 17 students and teachers who were senselessly murdered on February 14, 2018.
Day 4: Using Art to Empower and Mobilize Youth in Broward and Liberty City
Gun violence is more than the high-profile mass shootings you see on television or national headlines. Black and Brown youth across America are disproportionately devastated by regular, “everyday” gun violence. That couldn’t be more true in Broward and Liberty City: In recent years, the community has seen children and high school students shot and killed — even as young as 4 years old.
That’s why we met with youth in Broward and Miami-Dade County — two historically underserved communities — to listen and discuss how gun violence impacts their neighborhoods. We gave middle and high school students space to express themselves and channel their emotions and trauma through art with artist and activist Manuel Oliver, who founded Change the Ref with his wife, Patricia, after their son, Joaquin, was killed in the Parkland school shooting.
And that’s a wrap! We couldn’t have been more proud of our first official Team ENOUGH tour.
We thank our local partners for helping make our homecoming trip a reality. Together, we are stronger in our youth-led fight to end gun violence.
Here are ways to get involved with Team ENOUGH!
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