Vic Mensa’s Foundation Plans to Train 11,000 Young People to Be Street Medics: Report

Now that Chicago school students are on summer vacation, it will leave many with nothing to do and possibly lead them to more exposure to violence in the city. In order to help empower young people from around his way, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa has launched an initiative to help them potentially help themselves.

According to a report Essence published Tuesday (July 2) , Mensa, in conjunction with his own SaveMoneySaveLife organization, plans to train 11,000 young people to be street medics. “We train and equip first aid responders in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods,” he says the website about the program. “And teach them how to not bleed out, how to stop blood flow from gunshot wounds.”

Mensa says that he got the idea from his trip in the Gaza Strip, a place he describes as being a “city under siege” with violence much like his hometown of Chicago.

“I was in the occupied West Bank in Palestine and I met a young man from Gaza who was from an organization called Build Palestine,” he explains. “[They] had a similar program where they trained 35 first aid responders, I think it was in Gaza.”

“Their ambulance situation and first response situation is actually a lot like Chicago,” Mensa continues. “Like the ambulances take a long time, might not come, might not be anywhere good to get treated, and it’s a war zone.”

Props to Vic Mensa for giving back to his beloved city of Chicago and making sure young people are staying productive during the summer months.

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