Motivated by the murder of 16-year-old Providence resident Errol Clinton three months ago, the Liberian Community Association of Rhode Island organized a youth non-violence summit Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28-29, at the Community College of Rhode Island Liston Campus, One Hilton St., Providence.

Entitled REAL TALK: Inner City Youth Confront Violence, the summit brought together more than 100 middle school and high school students from the Providence area to discuss the issues of gang violence and interpersonal violence. They also explored conflict management techniques and peace building strategies, so that area youth could learn how to avoid or deescalate potentially violent confrontations. Among the collaborating organizations for this event were the CCRI Center for the Study of Interpersonal Violence and the inner city social service organization Curse Breakers.

“Kids are looking for adult guidance in their struggle to deal with the violence around them,” reports Liberian Association of Rhode Island President Dr. Mator Kpangbai, a principal of the Adelaide Avenue High School in Providence.

Among those offering adult guidance during the summit were Providence Mayor David Cicilline and Providence Chief of Police Colonel Dean Esserman. “Mayor Cicilline was very interactive with the students,” Kpangbai adds approvingly.

Kpangbai hopes to help students use their own knowledge and power to help educate other children about non-violence. “I asked how many students would be interested in a support group, and almost all of them raised their hands,” he says.

The issue of youth violence became painfully real to Providence’s Liberian community this summer when Clinton, a Mount Pleasant High School student, was shot near Sackett and Balcom Streets en route to a party.

“While Errol’s death cannot be undone, it is important that we take conscious and proactive steps to ensure that Errol and others before him are the last [casualties],” Kpangbai told The Providence Journal last summer.

The victim’s father, Julius Clinton, moved to the United States from Liberia in the 1970s. Since that time, many Liberians made Rhode Island a destination of choice when they fled their country’s decade-long Civil War (1989-1997). The Liberian Community Association of RI reports that it serve approximately 8,000 families across the state, with a high concentration located in the capital city.

CCRI has become a focal point for many in the Liberian community, due in large part to the efforts of Associate Professor Bill Pellicio and the Center for the Study of Interpersonal Violence, which he directs. For more than a year, the center has partnered with the International Institute of Rhode Island, the Liberian Professional of Rhode Island and the Liberian Community Association to hold monthly support, training and adjustment sessions for refugees, according to Pellicio. Last fall, Pellicio traveled to Liberia with the Liberian Women’s Prayer Vigil for a month-long fact-finding mission, and now collaborates with area relief organizations to supply medical supplies and equipment to the war-ravaged country as it continues to rebuild.