Team Takeover! (Ms. Kalimah’s Story)

Kalimah Cunningham is a social worker and community organizer with The Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI) and the Human Rights Coalition. She lives just outside of Philadelphia in Delaware County. This is the story of how she started Team Takeover, a basketball team to keep young people in her community safe this summer .

I have a family member who has served 31 years of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole at a State Correctional Institution. I made a promise to myself and God that I would do everything in my power to now allow the streets to get ahold of my sons and grandson. I volunteer as an official visitor with the Pennsylvania Prison Society. The inmates all say the same thing: if I could only go back to when I was young and had someone take an interest in me I could have made better decisions.

In my community homicides are up 55% so far in 2021. The gun violence among young men of color is staggering. It’s not only in my community but it’s happening in every big city across America. I had to do something. It is nothing for our children to do. The park don’t even have nets for the boys to play basketball so I brought a basketball court for them to play on in the back of my house. They love to play basketball so I started a team. I am inviting a few police officers from our police department to establish good relationships between our community and the police department.

I am trying to raise $4,000 to cover Team Takeover’s start-up costs. Please take a moment to donate and share the link so I can keep the beloved young people in my community safe this summer.