Gangstas to Growers uses hot sauce to keep young people out of hot water
As soon as the backpack appeared, Abiodun “Abbey” Henderson knew she had a problem.
In a room of formerly incarcerated youth at the Shrine of the Black Madonna Cultural Center, the first day of a pioneering criminal justice reform program called Gangstas to Growers had been marked not with greetings but aggression.
As the tension rose, cellphones lit up. Suddenly other people, possibly gang members, arrived. A turf battle had come to the church basement. And Ms. Henderson – the 30-something former waitress responsible for bringing the group together – knew from experience that a backpack suddenly swinging from the back to the front suggested the potential presence of a firearm.
“It could have all started off very badly,” says Henderson, who founded the nonprofit for 18- to 24-year-olds in 2016.
Instead of
