Friday, graduating high school seniors in Onondaga County who were 'adopted' by the organization Street Addiction Institute Incorporated were celebrated. The organization’s Chief Operating Officer Dr. Najah Salaam said, "This is a way to bring hope and inspire our children."

The organization's motto is 'Community Serving Community.' They were created to address trauma like violence and crime. They typically work with about 150 families, serving youth and young adults between the ages of 11 and 25 years old.

"Using non-traditional approaches to engage them in the community,” Dr. Salaam explained. “These are usually children who are in specific zip codes, who have been impacted by neighborhood conflict and street violence."

In the last couple of weeks, there are been street violence and a number of homicides in Syracuse. While we may not know the motives behind each incident, Street Addiction's CEO, Timothy Jennings-Bey believes a combination of all that is happening right now among other issues are contributing factors.

"You have high levels of poverty, the education system, you have children not graduating, at 50% graduation rate, then you have unaddressed trauma, you have unaddressed homicides,” Jennings-Bey added. “You have families that are broken apart because of the violence, then you put COVID on top of that, so now you start to isolate people and they're stuck with all of that."

That is why their engagement is so important. The Street Addiction Institute is usually hands-on, but had to go virtual during the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was kind of awkward in the beginning because you're used to seeing your young people,” Jennings-Bey recalled, “You had an opportunity to hug them, look them in the eye, have that heart to heart conversation, then it was kind of like almost immediately, it seemed like overnight, you had to switch to a virtual reality, the computer world."

Things around the county are beginning to open up so they have adapted the programming, "For the month of June, the children will get out early. They know the forecast for them is what will be happening over the summer; now that we're going into Phase 3, a lot of hiking activities, leadership building activities, things that will get them out of the house and into the community," said Dr. Salaam.