Philly youth to march against gun violence on Sunday

A youth-led march through Center City to protest against gun violence is planned for Sunday, followed by a rally outside the Municipal Services Building. It takes place less than a week after a 15-year-old was fatally shot on his way to school, the sixth child killed in Philadelphia this year. As of March 28, 37 kids have been shot this year.

The march starts at 23rd and Market Streets at 12:30 p.m. and proceeds east on Market, ending at the Municipal Services Building at 2 p.m. after circling City Hall.

Event organizer Khalif Mujahid Ali anticipates 200 youths to attend along with representatives from youth services organizations. The kids expected to march participate in programs offered by Ali’s own Beloved Care Project, Forget Me Knot, Imani Star Development, and programs based in Camden and Washington.

This is the second annual march Ali has organized through his nonprofit, which he founded in 2020 to provide a forum for Philadelphia’s kids to speak and be heard. Every Saturday he gathers with kids and speakers to discuss their experience of gun violence and violence. “I say violence because people are dying from violence also,” Ali said.

“Our children have been seeing people shot, they’ve picked up guns, they’ve shot guns, they’ve been shot. They’ve seen — I’ve got a girl who’s seen her mother be murdered. So we don’t talk no jobs, no after-school programs. We talk about the trauma, dysfunction, and pain and anger first. Because until we deal with that topic, you can’t deal with anything else,” Ali said.

Beloved Care Project also organizes healing circles and field trips to other cities. With support from the city’s Targeted Community Investment Grant, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s GRIT grant, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, it also offers kids weekly stipends. “Just like you’re giving them love and care, it’s like giving them an allowance, like giving them a job,” Ali said. The kids participated in a letter-writing campaign ahead of Sunday’s rally to invite local groups and officials to the event.

“Dear organizations working with trauma,” one letter read, “the time is now to end gun violence. Us kids deserve better!!”

While the march and rally will address something gravely serious, Ali puts a positive spin on the event, welcoming all who would like to attend. “We got a drumline, music at the Municipal [Services] Building. We got a DJ. We got resource tables, kids are going to speak, they’re going to sing. We got poets, we got everything,” he said. “We really want the whole city involved.”