In recognition of his work leading our team as Director of Violence Prevention, the Seattle Seahawks and Delta Airlines recently named Marvin Marshall as Delta Community Captain. The program recognizes individuals who make outstanding community contributions, and Marvin was selected as a Social Justice Captain.  

Why? Because of the outstanding work he and his team do at the Y Social Impact Center. The Y Violence Prevention program team maintains an active presence through community outreach and provides wraparound services across King County to help those impacted by violence and the legal system. That means meeting young people where they are and helping youth identify barriers that were created by institutional and systemic racism while working collectively to create solutions. 

As the director of the violence prevention program, Marvin draws on his own life experience, community engagement, and involvement working within the legal system and serves as a powerful role model who believes in collaborative community growth. 

"Healthy community is an environment where young people do not have to be in survival mode, where they're given free-flowing access to resources" – Marvin Marshall  

Violence disproportionately affects our QTBIPOC and BIPOC communities because of the historical and present-day practices and policies that are embedded in institutions and systems. Marvin believes using violence prevention and intervention techniques is a way for us to collectively address this disparity and the rippling effects of violence.  

"[Violence] is something that should be deemed as a public issue. It's something that we look at like it's a community thing or a gang thing, but it's not. […] I think at the end of the day, we have to reach towards healthy community. When we look at gun violence as a public-safety, a public-health issue, and everybody in community is concerned with ending gun violence, then I think that we, as a collective, as a collaborative will start to come up with solutions." – Marvin Marshall 

The Violence Prevention team's hard work was recognized with an award ceremony with Seahawks, Delta Airlines, and Y volunteers helping to assemble hygiene kits that will be distributed across Y programs to youth experiencing homelessness.