KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Discussions surrounding violence prevention are growing just after a 6-year-old was shot Wednesday night in Kansas City.
Three children were shooting victims in Kansas City, Missouri, in just the last week.
It’s statistics like these that cause groups like Men of Vision and Empowerment (MOVE) to act.
“We got a shot at changing their life trajectory,” Ricky Kidd said while speaking at MOVE’s "Raising Men" workshop Saturday.
Kidd speaks to young men from a place of perspective and experience.
“23 years, wrongfully convicted for a crime I did not commit, all my 20s, all my 30s, all my 40s,” he said.
Kidd was released from prison in 2019, after serving 23 years for crimes he didn’t commit.
“What if I was in school that day?” he said. “What if I was clocked into work that day? What if I wouldn’t have been hanging around or associating with these bad actors, would my name even come up? Likely not.”
It’s his story that fuels his calling today: shaping the lives of young men in Kansas City.
“When we look back on our life and the way we were raised and the things we’ve been through, some of us came pretty close to maybe not making it to the next day,” Murad Baheyadeen said.
Baheyadeen is MOVE’s president. He works to help the young men of his organization see the value of life without violence.
Kidd is a living example of this for these young men, too.
“I didn’t have any uncles, didn’t have any brothers, didn’t have any organizations like MOVE or individuals standing in front of me like Ricky Kidd’s who were helping me understand how to make quality choices in life,” he said.
