Full transcript below:

Full Transcript of Face to Face Day Youth Panel 2025

[00:00] Tek: Good evening everyone and welcome to Face to Face Day. I’m Tek and I’m honored to kick off today’s youth panel. Today we’re spotlighting the voices of our community’s most powerful change makers, our young people. And this time our panelists will share their insights on the issues that matter to them. We encourage you to listen because real change happens when we face challenges together, head on and heart to heart. Let’s give a warm welcome to our youth and dive right in. I want to introduce our panelists today. I want you to let us know your name and how about you share one strength of yours.

[00:34] Damani: Hi, I’m Damani. One strength of mine is communication.

[00:41] David: Hi, I’m David. One of my strengths is my work method.

[00:47] Vaughn: Hi, my name is Vaughn. One strength of mine is I’m a good listener.

[00:56] Renisha: Hi, my name is Renisha. One strength of mine is math.

[01:02] Benny: Hi, my name is Benny and my strength is creative writing and expression.

[01:06] Tek: Okay, let’s talk a little bit about the community. What are issues in the community you think need to be addressed?

[01:25] David: I’d say more so of like counseling. I feel like they should be more intrigued instead of just looking at the problem. Also look on each sides of the table of the situation and see the reason why the person is acting the way he’s acting because people go through stuff. So more help for people dealing with mental issues.

[01:44] Vaughn: Yeah, the racism. People shouldn’t be so quick to judge us because we got a backpack on when we go to the store or a hood or ski mask. Maybe that’s just how we dress and how we fit in and how we’re comfortable and express ourselves. So they shouldn’t be so quick to judge colored people.

[02:06] Renisha: I say the drug abuse simply because there’s there’s a lot of people that’s helping either like make sure that these people are doing the drugs the clean way instead of not doing it at all. Finding a different… So harm reduction… different positive way to protect yourself with it.

[02:25] Benny: Misunderstanding and miscommunication with the crowd or with other people in groups as well. Just understanding each other.

[02:46] Damani: Okay. Drugs and homelessness. I say the two biggest ones in the community. Drugs are leading to being people being homeless but it’s also a big thing on the trains. I see that a lot it’s being used. They’re fentanyl and heroin. And they’re like blowing smoke and it’s infants and it, you know, just we don’t want to inhale that. You know, that’s like the biggest problem right now is the fentanyl.

[03:05] Tek: Yeah. And, you know, we’re talking about community. We’re talking about a place that we all we all share the trains. We are we all go to the same public places. So the community is all about everybody that shares that community. So while we’re talking about that, what do you guys think you need from others in the community?

[03:16] Vaughn: Guidance. I feel like we all need to guide each other the right way. Guide each other the right way so we can all be successful.

[03:31] Renisha: I feel like not only just not guide but more hands-on community people. And more like activities for us to sidetrack this from the things that it’s not acceptable to do.

[03:43] Benny: I feel like the community people and being guided by others but also not following one another and leading as an example.

[03:55] Damani: I say more like support, like kind of how piggybacking on what everybody else said. It just gives us like a better successful path in what we’re trying to do.

[04:13] David: I would say access to a mentor. So when that person going through mental, like mentally things breaking down, they got somebody to encourage them to do better, to want them to want more for themselves instead of just the basic stuff that everybody always get, you know.

[04:25] Tek: Well, I got a question for everyone. I want you guys to answer it, you know, as comfortably as you want to. But how do you experience your current world right now?

[04:49] Renisha: How I experience my current world right now? I don’t know how to too much go into it, but I definitely know that our world needs a lot of work and needs more than just people being willing to help the community out too. We also need like government-issued side helps too because we can’t just do everything on our own.

[05:04] Benny: Well, we need more. Current world is very timeless. So everything has its own time and space and you can get anywhere. But it’s just your imagination. Just follow your dreams.

[05:20] Damani: Um, how do I experience my current world? Um, it’s a lot, to be honest, to experience. It’s a big world. Um, got a good and bad between the world. So I struggle.

[05:43] David: So I say the emotional support, the support physically, uh, the opportunities, you know, like they not, they opportunities there. It’s there. There’s opportunities there, but they not more as a, I don’t know how I could put it. Like in a helping, a helping way or easier way, easier access.

[05:58] Vaughn: I mean, for the most part, it’s okay, but it is struggles with like my past. It’d be brought up a lot. So it’s a lot of things that prevent me from getting done and doing. So I feel like people shouldn’t be so quick to like, just judge me and think, oh, he’s just an angry boy and a criminal.

[06:21] Tek: Well, you guys were talking about a bunch of different issues in the community, um, or things that you’re facing with your life experiences. What are the issues that affect you the most?

[06:31] Renisha: The drugs and the, I say, the work ethic that the community gives. It’s so poor and nobody cares. And I feel like that’s where it’s messing up at.

[06:47] Benny: I speak of what she said, drugs and work ethic together. Some people think drugs will enhance the work ethic. That’ll make it more efficient. That’ll make it a relief, a stress reliever. You know, at the end of the day, everybody needs their medication. We need to balance that at least, like yin and yang, and just do what we need to do and then put off what we feel as if is good for us, because that’s something that can wait. Patience is a virtue at all times.

[07:24] Damani: It’s definitely the drugs. It’s just, that’s what’s really ruining the world, like our community. That’s a really big thing.

[07:33] David: I’m also going to agree with the drugs. The drugs mess up friends, relationships, family relationships, close people that’s, you know, it messes up a lot of people.

[07:46] Vaughn: I disagree with everybody else. It’s the drugs and then the youth beating on the homeless and the people that’s vulnerable. I feel like that’s messed up. Why do that? That’s still a person at the end of the day.

[08:03] Tek: Yeah. And all those are really good issues that, you know, I definitely understand are affecting the community and you guys’ lives as well. Now, it seems like there could be a disconnect sometimes with the way people look at the youth in the community, the way people look at the young adults in the community that are just starting to take the responsibilities of their own and their own lives. What do you think we need to know about the youth today that we might be misunderstanding?

[08:32] Benny: The youth is known right now between Gen Z, millennials, they may have short attention spans, so everything is quicker. It’s more exciting. It’s more fast. It’s more. On hand, online, everything’s online. Even if you’re trying to get a job, that’s online. And that’s why people say that, like, trying to get drugs and things like that has to do with even being attracted to what’s online. So, the youth itself is just fast growing and it’s very quick to, you know, find a solution towards greater things in the future.

[09:10] Damani: That the youth is very much just as educated as the older, our elderlies. And I feel like our older, like, our older role models should give us a chance on, like, voicing our opinions. And I feel like when we voice our opinions, we get, like, shut down, like, no, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re not educating that, so I don’t want to hear it. But I feel like everyone should give us a chance just to voice our opinions. And here’s one time.

[09:36] David: I’ll say one thing y’all should be knowing that the youth, that y’all might not know about the youth, that’s how dangerous it is. It’s nowadays. Nowadays, there’s 15, 12, 13-year-olds carrying around guns, and they walk into school with that, trying to protect themselves from what they got going on. So, yeah.

[09:55] Vaughn: Um, I’d say just be patient with us. Pick back up on what Benny said. We got short attention spans. So, give people space for people who need it, who got anger issues, and need a minute to calm down the right way.

[10:11] Renisha: Hmm. Um, what about the youth today? Is that whatever trauma that they’re showing and they’re outcasting now, you should work with them and learn about their past? Yes. Because that’s what could be a big, a big showcase for them, too. And that’s the only way that they have learned and know how to express themselves and to come out about a majority of things.

[10:38] Tek: Okay. Let’s, let’s get into a little bit more about guys and what you, where you see yourselves in the future. What are your goals for the future?

[10:47] Damani: My goals for the future is to be successful, finish college, my human resources degree, um, own my home and my cars.

[10:58] David: My, my goals is to have a house, a car, and being successful and having friends that’s successful.

[11:06] Vaughn: Get drafted to the league and then, uh, give back to the community.

[11:11] Renisha: To get in the Air Force and get my medical degree.

[11:14] Benny: To follow my dreams and just inspire other people that are looking forward to being happy in their own world, letting them be there in their own world.

[11:24] Tek: I want to know as well, what are some of your hopes and dreams? Uh, we heard about your goals. I feel like the hopes and dreams can be a whole nother level of aspiration. What are some of your hopes and dreams, uh, for your future?

[11:38] David: Um, some of my hopes is being, is taking some of these laws and rewriting the laws. And some of my dreams is, like I said earlier, I want to be a rapper. Still, still want to do that. That’s not going to change. Um, so yeah.

[11:57] Vaughn: My hopes and dreams is for everybody around me to be, uh, successful and eat. Cause when, uh, one eats, we all eat, we’re a team.

[12:07] Renisha: My hopes and dreams are, well, my hopes are to finally get the courage to go skydiving on an actual plane.

[12:15] All: Woo!

[12:16] Renisha: You won’t see me, though. See? Oh, bro. I can’t do that. I’m scared of heights. No, for sure. My dreams are to have a best friend in a very successful business company. And we’d be having our own, we’d be our own CEOs.

[12:33] Benny: My hopes and dreams is to be a CEO of, like, business influencer, a marketer, and be able to, like, promote other people. And influence and, like, make music for people.

[12:49] Tek: Nice. And I hope you guys all get your, uh, reach your hopes, your dreams, and your goals. Um, you guys did a wonderful, uh, job on this panel today. Um, thank you to our incredible panelists for sharing, uh, your perspectives. Uh, today’s conversation has shown that when young people lead, our community grows stronger. Um, as we wrap up, uh, remember that a face-to-face day isn’t just an event. Uh, it’s a call to action. Take what you’ve heard today. Uh, keep the dialogue going. Connect with one another. Reach out to local leaders. And let’s work together to turn these conversations into real solutions. Uh, have a great rest of your day, a rest of your evening. Um, and let’s keep facing forward together, all right? Give us a hug.

[13:32] All: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.