D.C.’s youth have been in the news quite a bit recently, and the headlines have been somewhat negative. In the District, politicians and police have expressed a concern about a significant rise in crime, and in the case of carjackings in particular,  they say that many of the people being arrested for them have been quite young.

Overall, youth arrests in the District remain at a 15-year-low. Still, officials have called press conferences and announced new police task forces. They’ve sparred over the best approaches to address youth crime, with some advocating more punitive approaches and others advocating for more of an emphasis on programming and mental health support for youth.

But what’s often left out of these conversations are the opinions and contributions of young people themselves.

“Some adults won’t just believe in us,” says Kevin Mason, 16. “They think we’ll grow up and be some type of demon, killers, or something like that, but that’s not what we really are. We’re trying to build something.”

And, 12-year-old Isiah Jones adds, it shouldn’t be too difficult for adults to learn more about what kids need.

“They could come find out,” he says.

So, for this edition of Voices of Wards 7 and 8, DCist spoke exclusively to young people who live or go to school east of the Anacostia River about the kinds of support they feel they need to achieve their goals.

Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

HaaŹari Parker, 12

I feel like [the support we receive as youth] is good, but it’s not good enough to keep kids off the street. Because I see kids on the street, they be having guns and everything. I feel like they be around it so much that they get used to it and they feel as though they need to do it.

[To be successful], I feel like I need school. I like it. We got great teachers, we got great staff. They help us. I like math.

[My family] supports me a lot. They come to my football games. They cheer me on. They make me feel like I’m worth them looking at.

[The youth need] activities that keep kids off the street. Sports and stuff like that, and more – you know … like a house that kids can go to, and they got games and stuff. I feel like we need more of those. We [my friends and I] care about each other a lot. We may know each other a little by school, but we care about each other a lot. We take up for each other, we make sure we got each other’s backs and we help each other.

Isiah Jones, 12

I like the teachers, the subjects [at school]. They’re nice – some of them. I just moved here. [To me, support looks like] love. [I’d like to see more] food trucks, ice cream trucks. More activities. No bullying. No getting in trouble for little things. More parks, more stores … more houses, more apartments, less guns, less cases — like murder cases, break-in cases.

Everything the youth says, [adults] do the complete opposite. [I want them to] stop yelling for no reason and taking their anger out on us when they come to school, because they think we’re just little babies. If we disrespect them, they’re so quick to call our parents. If they disrespect us, we can’t do nothing. If they respect us, we’ll respect them. But we’ve got to respect them either way – even if they’re disrespectful.

The government [feels] they can do whatever they want and that they don’t gotta listen to the rules. They feel like they are the rules. They’re people too. They’re human too – so they all need to follow the rules. Just because they’re the boss, doesn’t mean nothing, and they actually lie a lot, so they should stop lying. [If adults want to know more about the youth], they could come find out.

Alaiyah Davis, 11

My favorite thing is my education. I like cheerleading, track, and aftercare. Whenever I’m cheering or running track, I feel excited because I hope we win. I also like P.E., math and going places with my sister. I want to be a doctor, a dentist or a police officer. I need to have access to a get education for that. I want to have a nice house and make enough money for my children. I’d like to see less bullying and no gun violence in my community. There’s a lot of bullying and fights in my school and community too. The Mayor and D.C. Council kind of listens to us, we have schools, malls, houses for everybody. I feel I’m understood by the adults in my life. I have a supportive family and friends.

Derrick Alan, 14

My favorite subject is Algebra. I love when I learn about equations. We need more protection in school; people are bringing weapons thinking it’s a good idea but it can cause problems with other schools. We need more security after school. I like track: Running 100 meters is my favorite. It’s hard, but I’ll get to know it. If I could create the perfect school, I’ll have tech, art, piano and dance classes available. My classmates and I are interested in drawing. What makes a community safe is the youth having more relationships with adults instead of having negative thoughts about them. Some students feel adults don’t want to talk about their [kids’] problems. A solution is to create a class about helping and listening to each other’s issues. The great things about my school is the teachers and coaches. They’ll say things like “keep moving forward, we have high hopes for you.” I’d like the city to provide transportation for students to school. The type of support I’d like more from adults is motivation so we [youth] can be more confident.

Israel Jefferson, 12

A thing I want to stop in the community is gun violence, because I did lose a family member to it and it was heartbreaking, but I still got through it strongly. My people told me, “Don’t bottle up your feelings cause it’s not going to make it better.” So I cried a little bit. And I just kept on grieving inside, but at the same time, I still let my feelings out and tell people how I felt. [To stop the violence,] some people do protests. Some people speak, like how I’m doing. For me, I would do both – speak and do a protest at the same time.

[A perfect environment] would feel better than what it feels like now. Nobody would be scared to walk outside, especially females. One of my friends told me they feel scared to walk outside, because of their body. I don’t want anybody to be scared to come outside or feel uncomfortable, because some females can’t wear certain things or do what they want to do because some predators or men are just weird and creepy. No one likes that. If I was a female, I would feel uncomfortable for that, too.

[I like] seeing my siblings. [I like to go to school] to get out of the house and see my friends. [I like] P.E. or math. I’ll be a track star. My friends around the neighborhood, we go to the mall, skating, we go to Six Flags. [In] my community, I have a pool, a playground, a food truck, and an ice cream truck. That’s fun in my eyes.

Antonio Tucker, 12

[I like] football. When I first saw athletes playing it, I just fell in love with it. I prefer wide receiver and quarterback. [When I play football], it makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like I belong there.

[In my neighborhood], one thing I hated was … we live by this tree, and this tree is by our house, and when it blossoms, it’s really beautiful. But they cut it down. I like how it’s sunny, real sunny in the spring. It’s just that warm temperature, and then the trees just blossoming at the same time. It’s just relaxing. I’d like to see no littering. Because it be a lot of trash. They are making signs that say, “No littering” in the woods, and people still do it.

[I like] my friends. I would say, the friends that really joke around with me and help me when I’m down, ask me if I’m alright. That’s the type of friends I have. [When my friends are feeling down], I ask them, “Are they OK, what happened, and who did it?”

I want to be a football player, but if I can’t do that, I might try basketball. Or if I don’t do basketball, I might just go for probably [becoming] a doctor. [At school], it’s good that we learn the stuff we’re learning now. [I’d like more] history. I want to learn history – the history behind what happens, books, stories.

[My mother] makes sure I eat, she provides a lot of stuff for me. She also takes care of my little brothers and my big brother and my little sister. So I’m thankful for that. [If I had unlimited money], I would give the money to my mother. Because I’m not gonna lie, I’d spend my money – and it’d be on snacks. But if I give it to her, she would provide stuff for us and help us with stuff that we don’t have.

[Youth need] their families being in their lives, because some family members are never in their lives or not there before they’re even born or just don’t want to be there. Some kids don’t have their father, and that probably makes them act the way that they act, because they don’t know how to act. They probably want to be the boss of something.

Rasheed Bates, 11

I want to see smiles on people’s faces, and want people to have a good time. Some of these people in the streets – it’s just going bad, and I want them to just have a good time with their family and all that. I want people to support their family and have a good day. I just want to go out and play around, go to lunch or go get something to eat, or even go with Miss Hardy [from Guns Down Friday]. [If I could add to my neighborhood], I would put houses, cars, some restaurants, and some games. Laser tag. [For] people that’s having a bad time, the people that’s rich or got some money — they could just help them out, take them out to eat, give them some clothes.

Rashad Bates, 12

My goal is to go to the NFL and if I retire from the NFL, have my own business to run so I can still help out the community, help change the community and have an office. Kids – if they call me – I’d just come around there, just pick them up, take them to some fun places, get them something to eat, and have them back home safe. [In my neighborhood], I’d change the whole thing. If this was an apartment complex and it had rat infestations and roaches and stuff, I’d just buy a whole new one, fix it up for the community and build a shelter for the homeless – give them food, clothes, shoes, socks, anything. And help out kids that’s already in the hospital .. and people that have any type of disease they’re going through. I’d send money to the hospitals and send money to people’s parents that’s struggling. If I had unlimited money, I’d see the homeless and see if I could buy them a nice apartment, get them some clothes, shoes, and leave them with some cash.

Some programs [in my neighborhood] – I like them very much. They give food to the community and they help out people who need it. We go around the whole thing, just passing around food to people who need it. [If I could talk to the mayor and D.C. Council], I’d tell them [to] build some new places for kids to go have fun. Like, have a center for kids to just go in there, sign in, have fun, and when they’re ready to leave, they just sign out, go back home and chill.

Kevin Mason, 16

Things that kids need: community centers, playgrounds and other activities to do. That’d really help the neighborhood. A place where little kids can be in a program or something and not just running around in the streets where anything can happen.

I’mma be very honest, some adults won’t just believe in us just like that. It’s going to take them some time to believe in what we want to do and what we want to achieve in life. They think we’ll grow up and be some type of demon, killers, or something like that, but that’s not what we really are. We’re trying to build something.

Right now, I’m rapping. What I’m thinking about doing is really changing my community. I really want to buy the whole neighborhood. I’m gonna add a community center for the kids, because when I was younger I was always looking for a community center. Right now, it’s a community center in our neighborhood [but] there’s nothing you can really do in there but play a little boxing and stuff. When I change it, I want to put a finished gym, basketball – somewhere all kids can have some good activities in.

You can’t just look at the kids wrong – it’s where they come from. If you ain’t really had no parents around, nobody to really take you in and shelter you, they feel like they got no type of help. [The city] could come together and just do a meeting – let the kids come out, let the kids speak to the adults and let them know how they really feel. The adults should just take it in and think about it. I want them to be involved with us. I want them to hear, try and build things, remodel the community center, basketball courts. Just come together and help the kids out.

Adam Barker “Junior”, 10

What I want to do, I just want to buy houses. If I had a lot of money, I would feed the homeless, give them some clothes, give them everything they need, and I’ll help the community by selling houses for the homeless and get a creative center, a community center – it’s going to be all kids in there. Let them play and stuff. I’m gonna have a basketball gym, a football field in there. And I’ll buy a big old mansion. I’m going to have a gaming room. And to help my hood, I want all my own stuff. I want to have a restaurant, I’m going to have laser tag there. And I’m going to hire some workers from the people I know – my friends, my family, hire them to work at a job and pay them. I just want [other kids] to follow my path of having great experiences and having freedom for other people. All I’m going to say is: get your education right, go to college, get your grades right.