"Project Love" - Can character building stop the epidemic of teen-on-teen violence?

On Tuesday November 17, 2009, over two thousand high school students from Northeast Ohio were in attendance at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center for a half day rally-style event sponsored by Project Love. Nearly one hundred Collinwood High School boys and girls were present. The question of the day was, “What are the rules of the game for creating a culture of kindness?”   

Most impressive among the variety of speakers were the football coach and team members from St. Ignatius High School who have started an anti-violence program – standagainstviolence.org - following a gang-related attack on the near West Side that left Justin Winemiller severly injured. This is the type of grassroots action that programs such as Project Love hope to inspire.  

Can the Collinwood community which has suffered another senseless loss of life with Brandon Young’s recent death find a way to intervene with gang mentality or even the small but cruel acts of disrespect and bullying so prevalent among young people? Some Project Love students poignantly wrote about their feelings from the CSU event in their English class. Look under "Faith in Collinwod" to find out what one remarkable ninth grade girl had to say.