JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 On Friday, Jacksonville leaders teamed up with teens as a response to teen takeovers. This comes as students are preparing to be out of school for the summer.<\/p>\n
The common theme of the town hall-style panel was to find ways for students to stay safe and understand teenagers in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, I didn\u2019t think it was a bad thing until all of the crime and the shooting started; that\u2019s what made it bad,\u201d said Delores Beamon. She is the area director for Young Life, a local faith-based youth organization.<\/p>\n
She says what the takeovers have turned into is alarming.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe just have to make sure that they understand what it means when the crime comes in,\u201d Beamon said.<\/p>\n So, she and several other pastors and Jacksonville leaders organized the town hall to meet them where they are. They want to figure out how leaders like herself can help them come together in a safe way.<\/p>\n A panel of teens from several high schools across the district gave attendees a better idea of what they face daily.<\/p>\n \u201cTeens deserve to have a voice,\u201d said Ciara Hoey, an Englewood High School junior and student leader.<\/p>\n She says she also wants her peers to find more positive ways to get together.<\/p>\n \u201cMore so like teen bonding moments instead. Not taking over something but inviting each other and having fun but keeping it safe,\u201d Hoey said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as n<\/a>ews breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Beamon and several Jacksonville leaders today hope that after the event, students will find value in speaking up about how the community can step in.<\/p>\n \u201cBridging a gap of you know, they do hear us,\u201d Beamon said.<\/p>\n Representatives from Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s office were also present.<\/p>\n The Teen Hope Weekend will continue Saturday with an entrepreneur day for students and businesses to get exposure, and end Sunday back at Bethel Baptist Church.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Ja<\/a>x Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 On Friday, Jacksonville leaders teamed up with teens as a response to teen takeovers. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116953,9286,7840,116948,116949,116952,104435,116,118,117,58888,103295,634,115,116951,34238,116950],"class_list":["post-273558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-beaman","tag-ben","tag-ben_becker","tag-bethel_baptist_church","tag-dolores_beaman","tag-inglewood_high_school","tag-jack_jasmine_butler","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jasmine","tag-jasmine_butler","tag-local","tag-news","tag-sierra_hoey","tag-taneka_hughes","tag-young_life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}