Our Approach:
Over many years of grassroots organizing, direct action and street outreach, Chauntyll Allen has led violence prevention and intervention efforts, ranging from restorative justice sessions, outreach healing events, community resource response work, and youth mentorship and outreach. Continuing in our founder’s footsteps, Love First recognizes that community safety work must be holistic and comprehensive, involving our ancestor’s teachings, restorative practices, healing, community response, and youth mentorship.
Because Black youth are particularly impacted by poverty and economic injustice that leads over-criminalization, and abuse and bias that leads to hopelessness and drug addiction, Love First has developed interventions that lift up the humanity, autonomy and dignity of youth through street outreach and ongoing mentorship that connect them to the resources, relationships and cultural pride that redirect their paths from the juvenile justice system to positive community engagement.
We have supported youth leaders to pilot their own interventions, including overdose prevention and traumatic bleed trainings, and secured funding to provide wellness sessions for youth who rarely have access to healing modalities, like massage.
Addressing gun violence
During the summer of 2020, Love First joined the efforts of Guns Down, Love Up to hold healing spaces in the North End and North Minneapolis to address gun violence deaths involving youth. Love First co-sponsored a successful march and day of restorative healing in the North End and provided support to the youth stationed at Winnipeg Market on Rice Street, in mourning.
Revive and Thrive
In 2023, Sahara Jones — a Love First youth leader and HBCU Tour participant — developed and led a series of Revive and Thrive workshops on traumatic bleed and overdose response, training more than 60 young people in North Minneapolis as part of our work with the Wellness Collaborative.
In 2024, we’re bringing these critical resources to Saint Paul, with pop-up outreach events to provide on-the-spot training and supplies to community members in hot spots across the city, as well as comprehensive trainings that include specific foods and healing activities designed to address trauma and reduce cortisol.
