Watch: Youth therapy program hopes to end gun violence in Charlotte

Volunteer counselors with Charlotte’s Council of Elders, a nonprofit made of 15 grassroots organizations, are working with the children and teens to find the root of their trauma. Some children are exposed to traumatic experiences at school or in their neighborhoods, while others face adverse situations in the home.

The class is called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). It is part of a larger Juvenile Court Intervention program aimed at helping youth stay out of the court system. The Mecklenburg County Council of Elders offers the counseling program combined with other classes on topics like career building and anger management.

Kids and guns have been the focus of the past two CMPD police chiefs, and remains a top priority for the department. In addition to becoming the victims of gun violence, children and teens are becoming the perpetrators. Police officials, in a July 2022 CMPD news release, said they are seeing children as young as 13 “armed and routinely committing shootings.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2023 at 6:00 AM.

Kallie Cox

The Charlotte Observer

Kallie Cox covers public safety for The Charlotte Observer. They grew up in Springfield, Illinois and attended school at SIU Carbondale. They reported on police accountability and LGBTQ immigration barriers for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. And, they previously worked at The Southern Illinoisan before moving to Charlotte. Support my work with a digital subscription