DURHAM – East Durham residents highlighted the need for youth engagement at Durham Beyond Policing’s recent community design kickoff event, the first phase of designing community-focused programs to address over-policing in the Bull City.

Poet Williams is an East Durham native and Durham Beyond Policing executive director. “I know about all the bad sides of Durham, and, in fact, I participated in some of the bad sides of Durham in my youth, growing up here,” Williams said. “I take real pride in being able to serve my community and being able to bring folks together and try to enact change that is sustainable and that’s rooted in something real.” 

Durham Beyond Policing is a grassroots organization dedicated to moving funds away from the prison industrial complex on a local level toward resources for community members to address the root causes of criminalization in Durham.

Latisha Facyson is also an East Durham native. She joined DBP in 2023 after taking a leadership role in Community Design in Wellons Village, with the goal of letting “the community help us build a tool that would help them without involving the police.”

“So many of us don’t actually be inside the communities, but it’s great when you see the same person’s face over and over again. You start to trust, you start to learn what the person is out there doing,” Facyson said.

Bringing resources to community members without involving city government at all is a major priority of advocates dedicated to racial equity and social justice as the city changes. Together with DBP, residents innovated a “boots on the ground” community resource navigator program that allows residents of that community to canvass the neighborhood with backpacks of supplies and the ability to direct vulnerable individuals to available resources. 

“You can ask them for resources; you can ask them for help without involving the government, the police, the different ways to get tangled within the government. So that’s what we’re trying to do here,” Facyson said “It’s built by community, and built for community; it don’t have city funds. This is what we’re asking of y’all.” 

Hillside High School students’ Tashawn Bunch, Jeremiah Gray and Nasir Williams discussed the conditions facing Durham’s youth today, whether it be peer pressure, family responsibilities, or a lack of direction or faith in a better future. 

Williams, 15, is a youth minister at his church and proud to be choosing his own path rather than following in his father’s footsteps. He said leadership is a skill that is necessary for Durham residents to help relieve the pressures on youth. “These kids just need love and support,” he said. “Especially Black kids or Black men in particular. A lot of people just think Black men are gonna do this or do that. It’s just like, I can’t even breathe on earth without someone just judging me,” he said. “Maybe the gun violence can go down, but it starts with us.”

Durham native Samir Bey said there used to be more youth programming.

“We used to have programs where I felt like the whole city was there,” Bey said. “These kids have so much energy, and it’s not being directed. Giving them something that they can attach to and say, ‘hey, I can do this,’ gives them a purpose. Helping people helps other people; and if they don’t have the spaces where our children can see that, they’re never gonna get there.”

A variety of summer opportunities and internships can be found on the website for the Department of Community Partnerships and Engagement’s Youth Services Division. Durham Arts Council, North Carolina Central University and Durham Parks and Recreation all have offerings that are still open this summer. 

“All of these things are by design,” Operation Stop CPS Founder and Director Amanda Wallace said. “It’s so important for us to understand that and the history of why we’re here as we’re trying to build something new for our community…the fix is not going to come from the government or any connection from the government.”

Durham Beyond Policing offers residents many opportunities to get involved. Visit the organization’s Facebook and Instagram profiles. 

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