In the News
Editorial: Trenton man’s ‘Urban Warfare’ program gives city kids a fighting chance
By Times of Trenton Editorial Board
The banner Kenny Williams uses to illustrate his Urban Warfare program is stark. Bearing the message “Empowering Youth in our Community,” the only color pulses from two hearts beneath target marks.
Williams is aiming for the heart of the problem — the gangs, crime and despair – attacking the city of Trenton. And he’s focusing on solutions by encouraging the hearts of the young people who have the power to turn those situations around.
It’s impossible to read Times staffer Jenna Pizzi’s profile of Williams and his work without rooting for this guy, what he’s accomplished and what he means to do. He’s providing a healthy heaping of hope in a city starving for some.
Williams, who grew up in Trenton, had been away for a while when he returned to visit his sister and his nephew in the Donnelly Homes public housing. It was 2005, at the height of the worst gang warfare, and Donnelly Homes was a hideout and an incubator for gangsters.
He told Pizzi he saw everything from people dealing drugs and weapons to shootings and children as young as 10 walking around with guns.
He resolved to fight it – literally.
Drawing on his own experience learning to box, he decided to reach out to the kids with his gloves.
“I would bring my boxing gloves and I would sit them on a bench and I would say, ‘Well, anybody can shoot a gun; if you are really tough put these on,’” Williams said.
With that opening established, Williams launched a basketball clinic as a way of knitting the community with a healthy activity. After spreading the word that the first meeting was just for gang members, he was astounded to see 150 of them show up for basketball at the Donnelly gym.
Since then he has hosted a program in the gym every Friday evening from 5 to 8 open to all of the kids who live in the public housing development, Pizzi reported. Since 2005, the program has expanded, with help from local churches, to include a literacy program and a program for girls.
Williams hopes to expand Urban Warfare into a vocational program where the young men can learn a construction-related trade. As skilled plumbers, contractors and electricians, he foresees them renovating the abandoned and burned-out buildings surrounding the perimeters of Donnelly Homes.
“They can build Trenton back up,” he says. “If I can get those boys off the corner and start building these houses back up, they would think before tearing them down. They would believe in their city.”
If that comes to pass, it will be because Kenny Williams believed in them.
http://uwinc.org/events.html: In the NewsEmployee Spotlight – Kenneth Williams
Welcome to our new Employee Spotlight section. Each Employee Spotlight will feature a LWD employee with a unique story to share. It is important to recognize LWD employees not just for the work they do for the department, but for their contributions to their communities as well. Please continue to check back to learn more about your fellow LWD employees.
Kenneth Williams is a claims examiner in the Division of Temporary Disability and has been with the department for 25 years. His favorite part of working at LWD is assisting the public and helping to address their needs.
Kenneth is also the President and CEO of Urban Warfare, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Trenton youth and their families by providing comprehensive services in a safe and sensitive environment.
It all began in 2005, when Kenneth visited his sister at the Donnelly Homes in Trenton and was disturbed by the gangs, drug activity and violence in the neighborhood. He soon founded Urban Warfare to offer youth a safe environment, athletic skills, and career and vocational training.
Every Friday evening, up to 100 youth gather at the Donnelly Homes Community Center where Kenny uses recreational activities as a tool to teach students team-building and life skills. Urban Warfare promotes the core values of respect, service, honesty, loyalty, diversity, excellence, compliance, accountability, determination, and spiritual awareness.
Earlier this year, Mr. Williams was honored at the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards for Public Service. Jefferson Awards honorees are selected by The Community Foundation of New Jersey, The Star-Ledger, and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Volunteerism.
Kenneth’s efforts have been highlighted in the Times of Trenton and on NJ.com
More information about his organization Urban Warfare can be found here.