Jeffrey Brown: How we cut youth violence in Boston by 79 percent | TED

An architect of the "Boston miracle," Rev. Jeffrey Brown started out as a bewildered young pastor watching his Boston neighborhood fall apart around him, as drugs and gang violence took hold of the kids on the streets. The first step to recovery: Listen to those kids, don't just preach to them, and help them reduce violence in their own neighborhoods. It's a powerful talk about listening to make change.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

[justinmendes]

Amy Cuddy's book Presence brought me here.

[foobman]

Speaking as an atheist, this is the kind of religious person I could get behind. Someone who listens and acts and who skips the preaching.

[BrianAndersonPhotography]

You are a remarkable man Mr. Brown. That was very inspirational. Thank you so much for what you do.

[sandman]

Much like many others watching this video, I'm not the most religious person. With that being said, I have an enormous amount of respect for this man. He took a stance and did something for himself and those around him not as community service, not for recognition and accolades, but because HE WANTED TO. That's more than I can say for myself.

[TheKibeer]

Translation:
Stop throwing $, bureaucrats and cops on the problem, stop relying on the Government. Form local, voluntary body of people who in fact form local government with very limited powers, who are personally invested and motivated.

Explanation: These kids need functioning families, wise patriarchs to guide them by example and reason not force and punishment.

[effectsofraponyouth]

Jeffrey Brown is a very well spoken man and talks about how within a 8 year period of time was able to reduce the crime in his city by 79%. What makes him so great is that he is cuts out all the media cover and talks about the character of his city and how it really is. He talks about how hip hop was a escape and a positive thing for the people of his city because they can relate the music to what is happening in his city.

[SamRiesgo]

Thank you for this!! This one was one of the most inspiring TED talks ever. Really.
Thank you!

[AJMacDonaldJr]

"I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government." ~ MLK (1967)

[saionaras.]

Que lição de vida!!! Que suas atitudes, sua vontade de ajudar ao próximo, se tornem em bençãos em sua vida!!!

[Schindlabua]

As someone who has never heard about the boston miracle, I felt it was kind of a shame that this was mosly, well.. preaching, and less abou how they cut youth violence by 79 percent.

[imirati]

Wonderful... Everyone matters, most of all them that need help to live a full life in as peaceful a life as they can bring. This is a save to favorites at the time's as now that we are losing so many of people trying to just live and get by without conflict but as we see NOW, people helping people always works . God bless this man, Every Human should be given his message of love for his fellow human and understanding of where each person must be given LOVE. A must watch to the enforcement of law...

[trixie]

The positive evolution of religion.  Away from faith and belief, and towards action and aid to humanity.

[sdhpCH]

What's that 10+ thumbs done there?
Weapon dealers? Republicans? Cops? What kind of people can press thumbs down on this talk?!   I don't get it...

[ckndreams]

Very well put. The only thing I disagree with is collaboration with law enforcement. That piece always breaks the peace.

[Kernel_Kertz]

This is true peacemaking, true Christianity.

[Eleven-dkbe]

What a wonderful speech! I can respect this in how what most churches lack in community presence. I could back this and help out if I knew where to go and who to team up with. Albuquerque is one of the poorest cities in the country with I think the most cop shootings. I could be wrong but we're up there. A movement like this would be great. I see it also as a way for the judicial portion to lose out on revenue from the less than fortunate.

Good job pastor! :-)

[writerconsidered]

Well that was informative and answered one of my big questions which is how come we don't see the violence committed by cops on it's citizens here in boston like we are seeing in every other city in the country. The answer is boston got smart and went left
and all the other cities went dumb down and just started locking people up. We still have a 4th amendment and we don't have stop and frisk program. We don't have private prisons. We have such a huge tax base we don't use cops as tax collectors.
In short we went left and got it right.

[salmana]

This is an incredible story. WOW
Bravo

[RichyJ]

I went to a talk by Jeffrey tonight. Inspiring stuff, what a man!

[Mornys]

"We decided to listen and not preach."

Pretty much the difference between liberal and conservative, respectively, and the results speak for themselves.