Chants calling for peace filled Austin earlier this month during the Invest in Peace – March & Community Pop-up event organized by BUILD.
The march and pop-up event’s purpose was to honor victims of gun violence and to call an end to gun violence on the West Side. The march was a part of Wear Orange Day, a national movement that honors victims of gun violence that began in Chicago in 2013.
The Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development, or BUILD, is a violence prevention and youth development organization that is based in Austin. Wednesday’s march was a part of more than 100 events BUILD organizes on the West Side every year. BUILD’s mission is to create opportunity and support for youth and adults.
About 250 people marched that day through the Austin area, organizers said, wearing orange in solidarity while Austin residents, members of BUILD and community advocates called for an end to gun violence.
To the beat of the drums and snares of Kaos Drumline, marchers began at the BUILD headquarters at 5100 W. Harrison St. and moved down West Harrison Street to South Central Avenue, then to West Jackson Boulevard, and down South Leamington Avenue, ending back on Harrison Street.
Passersby honked their horns in support and some residents came out on their front porches to watch as marchers held signs and chanted, “put the guns down! These are our streets.”
“There’s people that actually want to see better in their community, and there are people that’re going to stand 10 toes with these people who are trying to improve their community,” Dominique Young, a marcher, said at the event.
Young, a 22-year-old Austin resident, said it’s important for his generation and younger people to see the importance of using peace to overcome conflicts in the community.
“Picking up the gun is the easier thing to do. Doing the right thing is going to always be the harder thing to do… that’s why a lot of people take that route, because that’s the easy thing. It’s easy to get a gun, but it’s not easy to come out here and march,” Young said.
Bradley Johnson, chief community officer at BUILD, said his focus is on providing opportunities to address the root causes of gun violence.
“My mind is more so around not celebrating or talking about the negative end of gun violence, but the other end – where all these opportunities that exist that are solutions for gun violence, because gun violence is not the problem. It’s a problem,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the core of the problem in Austin is the lack of options for youth, a hurdle BUILD is working to overcome.
“The root causes of the problem are lack of relationships and lack of opportunity. Those are the things that we work on at BUILD: to provide the guidance and support, but also access to opportunity. So now, young people have options. They have choices,” Johnson said.
Summer employment for teens, summer camps and paid mentorship opportunities are some of what BUILD is offering the Austin community this summer.
According to the Mayor’s Office Violence Reduction Dashboard, a real-time violence data tool, there were 226 fatal and non-fatal shooting victims in Austin in 2023, a rate of about 24 victims per 10,000 residents. Of those victims, about 17% are 19 and under, and about 34% are 20 to 29. About 84% of fatal and non-fatal shooting victims in Austin are male.
Mark Harris, the crisis director at Loretto Hospital and a West Side resident who participated in the march said reducing gun violence starts out in the community where it’s occurring.
“We can’t do it from inside the hospital. We can’t do it from inside the congress halls. We have to come out here and meet the people where they are, let them know we are out here, and provide information and resources. Because oftentimes that’s what’s missing,” Harris said.
Norina Pittman, a long-time West Side resident, said that having vocal and visible calls for peace on the streets of Austin invites awareness to their mission.
She said that she’s seen mostly positive change on the West Side over her past 20 years as a resident. The positive images, like the Invest in Peace March, are important to keep the good change coming, Pittman said.
“When you provide a positive image for the younger kids, they look around and say, ‘hey, things are happening in my neighborhood that are good things, everything on the news about my neighborhood isn’t all bad,” Pittman said.
