A community roundtable kicked off Friday night at the Sankofa Unity Center to begin the conversation.
"It's happening everywhere where we’re losing our youth,” organizer Avis Laden said.
Now they want to take action.
"Everybody knows somebody that's doing wrong. Just put a bug in their ear so they can do it right,” Darren Seals said.
He is front and center because he realizes his mistakes. "I messed it up. I did some destruction," he said.
Older and wiser now, he wants to reach the youth. Friday, he brought together former criminals to come up with a game plan to tackle crime in St. Louis.
It started with an open dialogue about trauma, something that's often not publicly talked about in groups like this. He said that's when the solutions can start.
"Back in the day you had the boom box, now you got the guns so we’re trying to redirect that,” Seals said.
He is working to re-train minds of local youth, by promoting guns as something adults have for protection and hunting, not to commit crime.
"I'm tired,” Duane D.T. Tolen said.
It’s why he’s now invested in the mission. He sold drugs as a teenager. Now he's working to prevent young people from living his story.
"We need to reach the boys that are actually doing the crimes, the ones that are doing the murders and things of that sort. This is where it starts,” Tolen said.
"Bridge that gap, get the communication going and hopefully start some healing,” Laden added.
The work is not over. Saturday, the group will gather to hit the streets, going into the heart of the community to have one on one conversations with young people. They will meet at 7 p.m. at the Old Courthouse on Fourth Street in downtown St. Louis.