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No doubt you were as horrified as I was to learn two teens allegedly traded a gun for money in a bathroom at Lowell High School last week. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Like reacting to the weather, it may seem there is nothing you can do, or perhaps you’ve convinced yourself it’s someone else’s problem—the police, the schools, or the parents of the gang-involved children. The reality is more hopeful and more challenging: Gangs and youth violence are our problem. It is a problem that belongs to the people who work, visit and live in Lowell, and whose children, like mine, attend its educational, recreational and cultural offerings. Regardless of the neighborhood you live in, the size of your paycheck, or the sheltered existence of your own family: youth violence in our city impacts us all. We need the entire community, we need you, coming together to discuss the issue and help us develop solutions.

So join us tomorrow night, Thursday, April 10, 5-7 p.m., at the Boys & Girls Club, 657 Middlesex Street, and find out what the City Manager’s Gang Advisory Board has been doing, learn about programs to support young people, and more importantly, help us prioritize the city’s actions going forward and express your concerns and ideas. Please join the City of Lowell, the Lowell Public Schools, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, MCC, UML, UTEC, and many other youth programs for this important community discussion.