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Hope Street Youth Development
Wichita

La'Keldra Hardwell was getting sucked in to the petty violence in her Wichita neighborhood before she found Hope Street Youth Development. "People just fight all the time over stupid things," she said. "I have a quick temper. Aaron [Fowler] taught me to just break off and walk away."

"They get us to somewhere else," says her sister TiJuana. The two sisters, who are 14 and 13 years old respectively, enjoy strong friendships with Hope Street's adults Aaron Fowler and 'Miss Kathy' Johnson.

Both girls had trouble in school but with the support of Hope Street's tutoring and development programs both see college in their future. TiJuana wants to be a lawyer, while La'Keldra would like to come back to work at Hope Street. The two sisters got involved in campaigns to improve access to jobs and scholarships and are involved in the Youth Forum creating relationships with the police department.

A friend took La'Keldra to a Hope Street meeting and she was hooked, eventually bringing TiJuana and their two younger brothers Kelly and Ty. "I feel like we're having a good impact on our own brothers," said La'Keldra.

Even though they are close to other Hope Street members, both girls said kids their age don't understand them. Youth in their community struggle with a lot of negative peer pressure to use drugs, get involved in gangs, and fight. It's really important to them to meet other youth leaders across the country at events like the Teen Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Retreat, and NPA, they say.

"I was talking about it [NPA] forever. We're still talking about it," said La'Keldra. "I felt close to people in different states. ... [the kids at the retreat] just get along, we're like family."

"I just want to let everybody know," said TiJuana, "stay in your group, be true to your group, be dedicated no matter what happens. And never give up on yourself, always."