Youth Over Guns

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Youth Over Guns

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Youth-led, Advocating for solutions to end gun violence. While centering underserved communities and empowering youth to be champions of life saving policies.

08/09/2026

There’s power in giving young people a place to come together, connect, compete, and simply be young. 🧡🏀

The Stop the Killing Tournament was born in 2020 during a time of rising gun violence and uncertainty. Six years later, it has grown into a powerful community tradition rooted in youth empowerment, violence prevention, mentorship, healing, and peace.

Youth Over Guns was proud to co-sponsor the 6th Annual Stop the Killing Basketball Tournament alongside the team and incredible community partners who continue to invest in our young people.

Because safer communities aren’t built by fear. They’re built by creating opportunity, connection, support, and spaces where young people can thrive.

07/31/2026

Last week we were in the room where the movement gets sharper.

Over 900 practitioners, policymakers, and advocates gathered at the GIFFORDS Center for Violence Intervention Conference to learn from each other and build solutions to advance across the country.

Our Founder Luis Jonathan Hernández and Board Member Ashley Monterrosa, who serve together on the GIFFORDS Latino Advisory Council, co-hosted the Council’s meeting that closed out the conference, bringing together Latino CVI leaders from across California. They facilitated an advocacy workshop on bridging community violence intervention, organizing, and movement building in Latino communities, attended by Community Warriors 4 Peace, Project Hope CA, Homeboy Industries, and local leaders who have carried this work for decades.

This is what intergenerational movement building looks like: young people learning from the elders who paved the way, and bringing our own strategy and urgency to the table.

Gratitude to the GIFFORDS team and every leader in that room.

07/15/2026

Abolish ICE.

06/30/2026

The badge doesn’t change the bullet.

In 2025, police killed at least 1,314 people, almost all of them by gunshot. When a stranger opens fire, our movement knows exactly what to do. When the shooter wears a badge, we go quiet. That silence is the gap we are closing.

Check out our new messaging and digital organizing playbook, published with our partners at The Sean Monterrosa Project.

Inside: the numbers and who the official count erases, the language to use and the language to drop, a rapid-response plan for the first 72 hours, and how to show up for families.

Read it. Use it. Share it with your coalition, your newsroom, your timeline. Link in bio.

06/25/2026

New playbook out now.

The Badge Doesn’t Change the Bullet, co-authored by our founder Luis Jonathan Hernández and Michelle Monterrosa, co-founder of The Sean Monterrosa Project, our partners in this work.

Police violence is gun violence, and our movement has too often looked away when the shooter wears a badge. This sourced field guide is how we stop. The data, the language, the rapid-response plan, and how to stand with families.

Read it now. youthoverguns.org/publications

06/21/2026

This Father’s Day, we’re holding all of them.

The fathers we lost.

The fathers still grieving.

The fathers fighting so no one else has to.

Tag a father who deserves to be honored today. 🧡

06/19/2026

His name was Kohen Wiley. He was just one year old.

On June 14, police in Senatobia, , fired into a car in a Walmart parking lot over a report of stolen diapers. Kohen was in his mother’s arms. She says she lifted him up so they would see there was a baby in the car. They fired anyway.

They tell us to fear the guns in the street. But we have always known to fear the one the state issues, discharges on civilians, and almost never answers for.

Police violence is gun violence. The badge does not change what the bullet does.

06/03/2026

Happy Birthday to our incredible board member, Ashley Monterrosa! 🎉

As a survivor of gun violence, specifically police violence, and co-founder of The Sean Monterrosa Project, Ashley brings deep courage, purpose, and love to the fight for justice and safer communities.

We are grateful for her leadership, her heart, and the legacy work she continues to carry forward. Wishing you a year filled with joy, healing, abundance, and every blessing you deserve. 💐

06/02/2026

8 years ago today, Youth Over Guns launched by mobilizing thousands of people across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Eight years later, we’re still building youth power toward a future free from gun violence.

To celebrate, we’re launching 8 for 8 — a campaign to raise $8,000 in grassroots donations, with every gift doubled.

Give $8, $88, $888, or whatever you can.

Sow a seed. Double your impact. Help us build the next eight.

Give here or on our website at youthoverguns.org.

05/15/2026

Last week, our founder and board members Kris Arroyo and Ashley Monterrosa joined 50+ Latine leaders from across the country at the 2nd Annual Latine Convening on Gun Violence, hosted at University of California, Berkeley’s Latinx Research Center.

The convening created space for leaders in the movement to connect across the field, build relationships, discuss shared values, and begin setting standards for how our communities are engaged, , and .

At a time when communities are facing threats and violence at every level, including state-sanctioned violence, these conversations are necessary. Our communities deserve approaches to public safety rooted in care, healing, dignity, prevention, and self-determination.

We are grateful to our convening partners , Hope and Heal Fund, and for investing in this dialogue and supporting the coalition building needed to move our field forward.

Address

New York, NY

Website

http://youthovergunsny.org/

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Heart River Center for Intuitive Healing

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