“When there’s a tough situation, I’m not afraid to tell my friends to think differently about their response. I’ve got the tools to help them out.”

Two years ago, Jasmin Huntsberry was playing tag on the front lawn of her grandmother’s East Oakland home, when gunshots rang out nearby. She snatched up her younger cousins and ran into the house to safety.

Convinced that “kids can make a difference,” Jasmin, a student at Castlemon High School in East Oakland, has since become a peer educator for Teens on Target, a violence prevention program supported by United Way’s Bay Area Community Fund. “Teens on Target helps students understand root causes of violence and employs leadership development to help them teach their peers how to respond in safe, non-violent ways,” said United Way Safe Communities Program Officer Jordan Klein.

During the 2005-2006 school year, Teens on Target participants received training and conducted more than 60 workshops focused on schools in East Oakland neighborhoods with the highest levels of violence. They addressed the kinds of violence most prevalent in the students’ lives—gangs, family and dating violence, guns, and drug- and alcohol-related violence.

Teens on Target Director Tamara Dukes stated, “The anti-violence message resonates with younger students because it’s delivered by peer role models who live in the same neighborhoods and share the same experiences.”

Last year, the program’s peer educators also led violence prevention assemblies for more than 2,000 middle and high school students.