Saving Our Sons: Former corrections officer works to break cycle of violence for Black youth

A year-long program designed to reach at-risk youth treats violence as a disease.

Saving Our Sons founder and former correctional officer Bruce Griggs said he grew weary of seeing young Black men in handcuffs. That is one of the reasons he started the Saving Our Sons Rite of Passage Program as part of the John Lewis Street Academy. It was created to give at-risk youth an alternative to the streets and deals directly with anger management. Griggs believes gang violence should be treated for what it really is: a disease.

"We show them that they are infected with social ‘HIV.’ We call it ‘Hood Infectious Virus.’ Kids call it ‘hood disease.’ If you are infected with ‘hood disease’ and it is not attended to, it turns into full-blown ‘AIDS’ -- ‘Addiction to Incarceration and Death Syndrome.’ You are either going to die or go to jail with the actions that you have," Griggs said.

Officer Griggs has worked for almost three decades to prevent youth like 8-year-old Robert Johnson and rising freshman Sardar Taylor from dying or going to prison.

Griggs said the mentors must be people who have survived the streets themselves.

Sardar's grandmother is all in.

"When you are working all the time, the kids’ video games are raising them. You don't want them to get with the wrong crowd," grandmother Sandra Watkins shared. 

Another unique aspect of the Saving Our Sons curriculum is that parent involvement is mandatory.

"We cannot continue to expect the police, schools, and government to raise our children. We got to do it ourselves. Not only does it work to teach kids, it changes the dynamics of the whole household. That mother and those siblings," Griggs said with confidence.

There are still slots available in the program which starts Saturday, July 3 and is free of charge. Contact Bruce Griggs at correctstart.org or call 404-889-3008.

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