Part Four: Lack of Sustainable Income and Youth Violence

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IS YOUTH VIOLENCE AN EPIDEMIC THAT COULD HURT SOMEONE YOU LOVE?

Part Four: Lack of Sustainable Income and Youth Violence

By Rozalyn Shepard

Suggest one way we can help young people access the skills, training, and opportunities they need to become employable and build a financially sustainable future.

Part Four: Lack of Sustainable Income and Youth Violence

Families cannot build stable futures without access to sustainable income. When people lack job training, employment, apprenticeships, career connections, and wealth education, poverty can continue from one generation to the next. Financial pressure can also increase stress within families and limit the choices available to young people.

A lack of legitimate opportunity does not define a young person’s potential. However, when young people do not see a realistic pathway to employment and economic stability, they can become more vulnerable to exploitation, negative influences, and choices connected to survival rather than purpose.

The Create Conversations Community addresses the lack of sustainable income through job training, jobs, apprenticeships, internships, career readiness, workforce development, and wealth education. These opportunities help young people develop the skills, experience, income, and knowledge needed to create a future beyond poverty and violence.

Comment below and suggest one way we can help young people access the skills, training, and opportunities they need to become employable and build a financially sustainable future.

We are raising $50,000 as an initial launch development milestone, not as the full budget for the initiative. This first step will help us begin building the foundation for the larger vision. If you believe every young person deserves a safer, more hopeful future and you believe in this work, please support the launch by making a gift, hosting an online fundraiser, or sharing this post.

Learn more about the program and give here: https://givebutter.com/support-sustainable-community....

Join the Create Conversations Community Facebook group and remain connected to the conversation:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/createconversationscommunity

For more in depth program information, email conversations@risenetwork.net.

Please share this post and let’s Build the Future, Together.

#CreateConversations #EconomicOpportunity #WorkforceDevelopment #YouthSuccess #CommunitySafety

Rise Network Community Development Corporation

Part Three: Education Is the Key to Future Workforce Development

Help Us To continue to inform and empower our community Please Donate. Get The Scoop Weekly On the Global Black Community and Southeast Queens, NY. Subscribe to Our Mailing List.

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IS YOUTH VIOLENCE AN EPIDEMIC THAT COULD HURT SOMEONE YOU LOVE?

Part Three: Education Is the Key to Future Workforce Development

What skill or opportunity made or would have made the greatest difference in your life when you were young?

Education Is the Key to Future Workforce

IS YOUTH VIOLENCE AN EPIDEMIC THAT COULD HURT SOMEONE YOU LOVE?

Part Three: Education Is the Key to Future Workforce Development

Education is more than earning a diploma. It is one of the foundations of confidence, leadership, problem-solving, career readiness, and future opportunity. When young people lack academic support, mentorship, leadership development, or a connection between learning and employment, they may have difficulty seeing a positive path forward.

When young people cannot see a future connected to education and opportunity, hopelessness can grow. That hopelessness can increase vulnerability to negative influences and make it harder to choose pathways that lead away from violence.

The Create Conversations Community views educating youth as an investment in future workforce development. Through Journey to Leadership, young people will be connected to mentors, leadership training, career readiness, practical skills, internships, and opportunities that help them understand how education can lead to purpose, employment, and economic independence.

Comment below and tell me: When you were young, what educational support, skill, or opportunity made, or would have made, the greatest difference in preparing you for the workforce?

We are raising $50,000 as an initial launch-development milestone, not as the full budget for the initiative. This first step will help us begin building the foundation for the larger vision.

If you believe every young person deserves a safer, more hopeful future and you believe in this work, please support the launch by making a gift, hosting an online fundraiser, or sharing this post.

Learn more about the program and give here:

https://givebutter.com/support-sustainable-community...

For more in-depth program information, email conversations@risenetwork.net.

The final post in the series, “Lack of Sustainable Income and Youth Violence,” will be published on Tuesday, September 8, at 7:00 p.m.

Please share this post and let’s Build the Future, Together.

Rozalyn Shepard

Create Conversations Community

Rise Network Community Development Corporation

#CreateConversations #Education #YouthViolenceAwareness #JourneyToLeadership #Mentorship #WorkforceDevelopment #CareerReadiness #BuildTheFutureTogether

Get The Scoop On Why Dr. Tamika Quinn Believes We Need AI Governance.

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I Use AI Every Day.
That’s Exactly Why I
Believe We Need
AI Governance.

Op-ed By Dr. Tamika Quinn

By Dr. Tamika Quinn, Founder of G.L.A.M. Wellness Group

I use artificial intelligence every day.

I learn it. I teach it. I build with it. I use it to develop ideas, organize information, create systems, increase productivity and accomplish things that would have required an entire team just a few years ago.

So when I talk about the risks of artificial intelligence, I’m not standing on the sidelines yelling that technology is evil or that robots are coming to get us.

I believe AI is one of the most powerful tools of our lifetime.

And that is exactly why I believe we need to talk seriously about governance.

This week, AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic after spending the past several years working in pretraining research at both Anthropic and OpenAI. His public warning centered on what he believes is an increasingly dangerous race toward more powerful, potentially self-improving artificial intelligence systems. Other researchers inside the industry have publicly echoed some of those concerns. 

That made me stop.

Not because I suddenly believe artificial intelligence is going to wake up tomorrow and take over the world.

It made me stop because when people who actually help build these systems are raising serious questions about how quickly the technology is advancing, the rest of us should at least be willing to listen.

And let me tell you, listening does not mean panicking.

It means governing.

Part Two: Fractured Families Create Fractured Communities

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IS YOUTH VIOLENCE AN EPIDEMIC
THAT COULD HURT SOMEONE YOU LOVE?

Part Two: Fractured Families Create Fractured Communities

What is one thing that could help bring families and neighbors closer together?

Part Two: Fractured Families Create Fractured Communities

Families and communities are connected. When families are wounded, disconnected, or unstable, those conditions can extend into neighborhoods, schools, and relationships. When communities are divided by fear, silence, and mistrust, young people may not receive the belonging, protection, guidance, and positive connection they need.

A fractured community can make it more difficult to recognize problems early, support families, protect young people, and respond to conflict before it becomes violence. Creating safer communities requires more than reacting after harm occurs. It requires people to rebuild relationships and accept shared responsibility for the well-being of young people.

The Create Conversations Community addresses this obstacle by creating opportunities for listening, education, mentorship, community forums, roundtables, civic participation, and shared action. Rebuilding relationships helps strengthen the network of support surrounding families and young people.

Comment below and tell me: What is one thing that could help bring families and neighbors closer together?

We are raising $50,000 as an initial launch-development milestone, not as the full budget for the initiative. This first step will help us begin building the foundation for the larger vision. If you believe every young person deserves a safer, more hopeful future and you believe in this work, please support the launch by making a gift, hosting an online fundraiser, or sharing this post.

Learn more about the program and give here:

https://givebutter.com/support-sustainable-community...

Join the Create Conversations Community Facebook group and remain connected to the conversation:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/createconversationscommunity

For more in-depth program information, email conversations@risenetwork.net.

The next post in the series, “Education Is the Key to Future Workforce Development,” will examine how education can help young people develop the skills, confidence, and opportunities needed to build a sustainable future.

Please share this post and let’s Build the Future, Together.

Rozalyn Shepard

Create Conversations Community

Rise Network Community Development Corporation

#CreateConversations #FracturedFamilies #FracturedCommunities #YouthViolenceAwareness #Mentorship #CommunitySafety #BuildTheFutureTogether  

Venita Benitez Joins New York in Restoring UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

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Venita Benitez Joins New York in
Restoring UN International Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of
Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

"BlackScoop News Announces Historic Coverage"

Advocate Venita Benitez Joins New York in Restoring UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Place Where the Story Began

The Black News Scoop, is proud to announce the publication of a groundbreaking feature on Advocate Venita Benitez, whose work has reshaped global remembrance in real time. For the first time in history, the United Nations International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, will be honored annually at Fort Monroe, the only UNESCO Site of Memory in the United States by Venita Benitez.

This is not a relocation. This is not a replacement. This is not taking anything away from New York.

This is joining New York — and restoring the remembrance for the ancestors at the place where the history began.  New York remains the global stage of the United Nations.

Fort Monroe is the historical ground of 1619. Now, for the first time, they stand together.

Why Fort Monroe Matters — The UNESCO Truth Most People Never Knew
Fort Monroe is not just a historic landmark. It is a UNESCO Site of Memory, one of the most sacred designations in global heritage — reserved for places where humanity confronts its deepest wounds:

• genocide
• slavery
• forced migration
• human trafficking
• crimes against humanity

Fort Monroe is the only UNESCO Site of Memory in the United States.

And here is the revelation: Fort Monroe remains protected even after the United States withdraws from UNESCO in December 2026.

UNESCO Sites of Memory do not disappear when a country leaves. They remain protected under international heritage law. They remain recognized globally. They remain part of humanity’s memory.

Which means: The UN Remembrance at Fort Monroe — restored by Venita Benitez — is permanent.

This is the part the world didn’t know. This is the part BlackScoop is breaking. This is the part that changes history.

Cassandra Wilson, Jazz Voice Who Gave "Strange Fruit" New Power, Dies at 70

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Sultry and Socially Conscious Jazz Legend Cassandra Wilson Dies At 70

Wilson at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, NYC, 2007
Photo Credit Professor Bop

Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose Mississippi blues roots shaped one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, died Tuesday, September 1st in Jackson, Mississippi, according to Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard.  Jeramiah Howard, confirmed her death at age 70; officials released no cause.

Wilson built her legacy as a musician who moved fluidly across genres, opening for Miles Davis and touring with Wynton Marsalis during a run of major jazz success through the 1980s and '90s. She embraced the title of musician above any single label, a stance that let her carry blues, folk, and soul into jazz spaces and expand who the genre could reach.

Her low, smoky voice brought fresh romance to Great American Songbook standards while she pulled covers from Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson into her repertoire, proving remarkably popular in decades when jazz lost mass audience share to rock and rap.

Wilson's rendition of "Strange Fruit" stands as one of her most powerful contributions to American music and memory. Billie Holiday's original recording exposed the horror of lynching in the Jim Crow South, and Wilson's version, with its slow-burning alto and spacious arrangement, carried that history forward for new listeners decades later. She turned the song into a bridge between generations, connecting the anti-lynching movement of the 20th century to ongoing conversations about racial violence today.

Checkout the Strange Fruit Video Below...

Part One: Dysfunctional Family Systems and Youth Violence

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Dysfunctional Family Systems and Youth Violence

Part One of the Create Conversations Community Educational Series

By Rozalyn Shepard

Is Youth Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the Create Conversations Community.

When we talk about youth violence, we often focus on what happened, who was involved, and how the situation should be handled after harm has occurred. Those conversations are important, but we must also be willing to look deeper. We must ask what young people may be experiencing before they become involved in crime or violent behavior.

Youth violence does not happen in isolation. It can be connected to the conditions surrounding a young person, including the family system, the community, education, and access to sustainable opportunity. Today, I want to focus on the first of the four obstacles to success faced by poor families, dysfunctional family systems.

Looking Within Our Families

A young person’s first understanding of love, communication, conflict, responsibility, and safety often begins at home. Family is where many young people first learn how to express emotions, respond to disagreement, trust others, accept accountability, and seek help.

When a family system is affected by unresolved wounds, instability, poor communication, constant conflict, emotional disconnection, or the absence of positive guidance, young people may struggle to develop the tools they need to handle life’s challenges. They may carry anger that has never been addressed, pain they do not know how to express, or fear they have learned to hide.

These circumstances do not mean that every young person from a difficult family environment will become violent. They do mean that when young people lack stability, support, guidance, and healthy examples, they may become more vulnerable to isolation, negative peer influence, retaliation, and harmful choices.

That is why this conversation must begin with honest self-examination. We cannot only ask what is wrong with young people. We must also ask what young people are receiving from the adults and family systems around them.

 

Marketplace With All Black-Owned Products Celebrates One Year in Business

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Founder of Virginia’s First and Only Marketplace That Sells All Black-Owned Products Celebrates One Year in Business

In February 2025, Black on Black Market officially opened its doors in Norfolk, Virginia, marking a historic milestone as the only Black-owned retail space in the state dedicated exclusively to housing Black-owned brands.

Founded by Tree Kelty, Black on Black Market was created as both a physical marketplace and a cultural statement — one rooted in economic empowerment, narrative reclamation, and collective progress. The space opened despite early resistance and neighborhood opposition that challenged its presence before it ever welcomed its first customer.

Rather than deterring the vision, that adversity clarified the mission.

“The name Black on Black Market is intentional,” said Kelty. “I’ve always rejected the phrase ‘Black on Black crime’ — because it doesn’t exist. Crime is crime. That phrase has been used to criminalize our communities and strip power from us. I wanted to take that language and flip it into something that represents unity, ownership, and purpose.”

Education Resource Kit to Support Black Youth, Families, and Communities

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Founder Launches Education Resource Kit to Support Black Youth, Families, and Communities in Building Strong Learning Foundations

As families, schools, and community organizations continue to seek meaningful ways to support Black children’s learning outside of the traditional classroom experience, educator and creator Bill Law has launched the Lumo Education Resource Kit, a culturally responsive educational resource designed to help educators, parents, caregivers, community leaders, and others engage Black children through a series of guided learning activities.

The kit is based on the very popular parody YouTube music video: “Being Black” by Lin Jess Music, BMI.  “For many Black families, schools, community organizations, Black identity and self-pride have always been a shared responsibility,” said Bill Law, creator of the Lumo Education Resource Kit.  “This kit was created to support that tradition by providing a clear, practical, and easy-to-use tool that helps adults actively participate in the learning journeys of Black Youth.

Is Youth Gun Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

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Is Youth Gun Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

Youth violence does not happen in isolation. It is connected to the four obstacles to success facing poor families, young people, and communities:

1. Dysfunctional family systems

2. Fractured communities

3. Poor education

4. A lack of sustainable income

These four obstacles can affect a young person’s stability, guidance, education, opportunities, and hope for the future. Fractured families can create fractured communities. Limited educational support can restrict future workforce opportunities. A lack of sustainable income can make it more difficult for families to move beyond poverty and can limit access to positive pathways.

The Create Conversations Community is designed to address these conditions through healing, communication, mentorship, education, leadership development, job training, employment, apprenticeships, workforce development, and wealth education.

Understanding the relationship between these obstacles and youth violence is an important step toward creating safer, more hopeful communities.

This is an introduction to a four-part series that will address youth violence, its relationship to the root causes of poverty and crime, the four obstacles to success faced by poor families, and the Create Conversations Community’s response.

I invite you to follow this series and join the conversation.

Which of these four obstacles do you believe has the greatest impact on young people and families in our communities? 

Let’s Build the Future, Together. Click Here and Tap in to join the conversation.

Rozalyn Shepard

Create Conversations Community
Rise Network Community Development Corporation

THE THREE GEORGES: A New Lens on the Revolutionary War — And the Black Patriot Who Represents Thousands Coming Into the Light

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THE THREE GEORGES: A New Lens on the Revolutionary War — And the Black Patriot Who Represents Thousands Coming Into the Light

United States — National Freedom Day Foundation (501(c)(3)) — The Revolutionary War’s 250th anniversary has already passed, yet one of its most powerful truths is only now being restored.  Author Venita Maria Benitez releases The Three Georges: “3GS” 1776–1783 Revolutionary War (Commemorative Edition) — a warm, hopeful, and deeply human retelling of America’s founding years that finally brings George Key, a free Black Patriot, into the light where he always belonged.

For generations, America taught us about two Georges: George Washington and King George III.

But the story was never meant to be told in twos.

In this commemorative edition, all three Georges stand together — Washington, King George III, and George Key, the Black Patriot whose courage and presence shaped the Revolutionary War era but was left out of the nation’s memory.

And George Key is not standing alone. He represents thousands of Black Patriots whose names, stories, and sacrifices are finally coming into the light.