Interview with Robert DeSena of Council For Unity on December 16

We went to John Dewey High school in Brooklyn to go meet and have an interview with Bob DeSena of the Council for Unity. Council for Unity is a organization that works in schools, jails, and high risk areas to help prevent violence. Council for Unity was founded in 1975 by 6 rival gang members that if they all saw each other on the street, they would probably shoot each other. They made a place that reduces violence and discrimination in schools, integrates communities and promotes community policing. Bob told us a story about the old leader of a gang that was in jail. While he was in jail, the Council for Unity worked and helped at the prison he was in. Everybody thinks that gang leaders and members are hardcore and don’t fear anything, but when he was attending the council for unity, he was reduced to tears hearing other peoples stories and saying his own story.
The high school where the council was working was very different than our school. The school was the size of a small college campus and in most hallways there were police officers. In order to get into the school you had to go through security. The rules were so strict that you weren’t allowed to bring glass bottles in to school.
Something that struck me was how amazing this organization was. I knew that this organization helped in a great way but I had no idea that they have been doing work for almost 40 years. I was also surprised that how eager he was to want to learn what we were doing. I would think that an amazing organization like this would be too busy to talk to 3 kids.
Something that I will put in my teach in is how people do change. When you see someone in jail with tattoos, you will probably think that they are part of a gang and have done some bad stuff. Although that might be true, if you are at a prison with a Council for Unity, they are probably trying their hardest to change. Sometimes after you get out of prison you don’t know any other lifestyle other than drugs and violence, but if you go to council for unity, that will probably change. I remember that we were watching a film with people who went to the Council for Unity meeting in jail, and Bob said that the second they got of jail, he would go and try to hire them.