Birmingham’s RESTORE Games to host hundreds of youth: ‘Put down the guns, love on each other’

This is another installment in AL.com’s series “Beyond the Violence,” which explores solutions that could make Birmingham safer, healthier and happier. Sign up for the newsletter here.

On Friday, more than 800 children and teens will spend the day playing and competing while learning how to put a stop to youth violence.

The RESTORE Games, an annual community event providing youth a safe space to have fun, will run from 12 to 4 p.m. at the Birmingham CrossPlex. The free event is open to the public and will include sports tournaments, resources, panel discussions and seminars led by city leaders and local violence prevention experts.

“The event is all about reducing the violence among our youth in the community,” Renee Price, the event consultant, told AL.com.

“We want to expose them to the fact that there’s so many different things that kids can be doing, other than resorting to violence. So I just hope that maybe they’re sparked or impacted in some way.”

RESTORE, a violence prevention and re-entry program for justice-impacted youth, has focused on setting youth on the right path since its inception in 2023.

On Friday, kids can participate in horseback riding, basketball, golf, baseball, ski ball, volleyball, life-sized chess, ax throwing, drone soccer, and classic yard fun like hula hooping, jump rope and sack races.

The event will also feature a live DJ, a temporary tattoo station, a block party, free food and drinks.

But this event isn’t just about playing games. Every child is also required to attend a conflict resolution session.

Antski Williams, a RESTORE program manager, who will be participating in a panel discussion, said the games began as a community block party in 2023. Yet, it has grown into a multi-partner event that is working to bring the whole city together for one common goal: stopping the violence.

“This year, more partners got involved and they’re buying into the ecosystem of community violence intervention…That’s huge,” Williams said.

The city of Birmingham is partnering with local organizations such as the Jefferson County Family Resource Center, the Birmingham Police Department, the Step by Step Foundation, Leaders of Excellence, Renew Birmingham and Max Transit to put on the event.

Organizers said the event will help to reinforce positive community engagement between youth and local resources.

“They’ll be able to go off and hear different seminars and workshops about conflict resolution, anger management, emotional regulation…We’re helping to thwart the violence before it happens,” Williams said.

Sheree Kennon, founder of What About Us, a support group for those who have lost someone to gun violence, has set up a memorial hall in the CrossPlex with the faces of homicide victims to remind those who pass through about the importance of violence prevention.

“We’re bringing more awareness to what’s been going on in our community…Put down the guns, love on each other, support each other,” Kennon said.

“Some of the activities are going to be tremendously important to our youth and change the trajectory of how they see life…These are our babies, and if we can’t show our community and our children that we’re here to support them, then why are we here?”

Price said she is grateful that so many community members and partners came together to make the games happen.

“It really says something about the growth of Birmingham and where we’re going to see the change that we want, and actually putting action towards that,” Price said.

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