The Voices in Our World: “I See Potential in My Life”

A series by Louisiana for Children’s Rights, in partnership with The Lens, that elevates the voices and experiences of Black youth currently or formerly detained in the Orleans Parish juvenile jail 

Society often perpetuates narratives about Black children that unjustly condemn them as individuals who are inherently bad, evil, or animalistic. As a collective, we do not prioritize their realities or experiences and we amplify their mistakes as justification for their disposal.

New Orleans children are our children. We cannot discard them.

Young people’s minds are still developing and constantly evolving. In adolescence, the teenage brain offers the ability to adapt to new experiences and situations and the tendency to take more risks. Those risks are shaped by The Village — the adults, peers, environments, and systems that surround them.

In my storytelling circles with Black youth detained pre-trial in the New Orleans juvenile jail, I urge them to look beyond their past circumstances or current conditions to instead, see themselves as full humans with the capacity to learn, grow, adapt, and thrive.

Despite their arrests and detainment, these young people consistently express the desire, commitment, self-awareness, and confidence to be the best that they can be. Many dream of furthering their education, having well-paying jobs and careers, reuniting with their families, giving back to their communities, and developing healthy habits for their minds, bodies, and souls.

I am inspired by their ambition, introspectiveness, and their ability to envision themselves beyond just four walls. 

I encourage you to sit with their expressions of direct responses and poems. Right now, they are navigating growth and ideating about their futures when they reenter the free world.

When they return home, it is on all of us in The Village to determine their social climate and how they are received.

How will we create a New Orleans that models positive environments for them to replicate and thrive in? 

How will we secure sustainable job opportunities and career paths for youth experiencing socioeconomic disparities?

How will we create a New Orleans that invests in families and pays people a livable wage, so that children as young as 14 years old do not bear the responsibility for the primary or secondary income of their entire household?

Black youth detained in the Orleans Parish jail see the potential of their lives. It’s our charge to recognize and support that potential. Here is what I asked them in this circle and here are some of their answers, followed by a poem written by one of the young people.

What does success look like to you a year from now? In five years? 

• “Removing all the negative people from my life, finding a path so I can change, getting my high school diploma, and learning different trades. A better environment, change of mindset, better way of living, controlling my emotions, and working with trucks.”
  
• “In a year from now, success means for me to have created or in the process of creating a path for myself that aligns with my personal goals. Five years from now, I will have obtained a trade and I will have become an entrepreneur.”
  
• “Success looks like me improving myself, doing good things in life, and working a job I like to help my community and help youth like myself.”
  
• “Five years from now, I see myself in college playing football and getting my degree.”
  
• “Applying for college and proceeding with life as if I never landed here, but also keeping it as a tool. I would like to graduate from college, get my own home, and become more dependent on myself than others.”

“I See Potential in My Life”

I am Black and proud

I wonder what I will be in 10 years

I hear good things and bad things about myself

I see potential in my life

I want better goals in my life

I am a child of God

I pretend to not be angry

I feel bad about making bad choices

I touch my heart for reasons

I worry about my family

I cry when I have a lot on my plate

I am overwhelmed

I understand that I can’t get my way

I say my prayers to have a better day

I dream one day things will be okay

I try to overcome fears

I hope to see better days

I am me

This series is a part of the #ItTakesAVillageNOLA campaign led by the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. To join The Village, sign the community pledge and learn more at www.ittakesavillagenola.org.