Precious Lives

Stories about kids, guns and how to stop the violence. Precious Lives, created by 371 Productions, is a 2-year, 100-part weekly radio series about gun violence and young people in the Milwaukee area. The series applies a public health lens to each story to help listeners understand the full scope of the problem: who are the victims and the shooters; how are the weapons obtained; and what can we change about the environment that contributes to violence in Milwaukee?

#081 Precious Lives: Safe Zones

WUWM 89.7 FM

Published August 2, 2016 at 11:22 AM CDT

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The Safe Zone Initiative - employs young ambassadors like Tyrone Fleming,17 and Simone Staples,17 to stop violence where they live. Khalil Coleman co-founded the initiative.

Photo by Emily Forman

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Photo by Emily Forman

17-year-olds Tyrone Fleming and Simone Staples love their new summer jobs. From 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, they get paid $12 an hour to stop violence in their neighborhoods, which includes walking up to guys arguing over a drug deal and persuading them against shooting.

I never really knew my community because I’m in the house all the time. So when I first started in the field, like a lot of people didn’t believe I was from Franklin Height because they never seen me. Like, 'You from here? I never seen you before.' And I’m like, 'well you’re gonna see me everyday now.' -Simone Staples