In a few weeks, the Street Soldiers violence prevention program will hold its international conference at Baltimore's Lake Clifton high school complex, with participants expected to come from as far away as South Africa.

I've written a few stories in the past couple of years about Street Soldiers as it's being implemented at the Lake Clifton schools: Doris M. Johnson and Heritage. The program was started by a San Francisco teacher and a counselor tired of seeing their middle school students end up behind bars or, worse, in caskets. It views violence as a disease that can be overcome by replacing "rules of the street" (example: thou shalt not snitch) with "rules of living." Its mission is to keep youth "alive and free" -- meaning unharmed by violence and not incarcerated. Those infected with the violence disease are viewed as having bodies filled with toxins they need to "throw up," or talk. Street Soldiers provides a safe environment for young people to do that.

At Lake Clifton, the program is run by a dynamic woman named Nzinga Oneferua-El, who over the years has lost both a fiance and a best friend to Baltimore's street violence. Through classes during the school day and an after-school program, she blends the Street Soldiers model with entrepreneurial job training to give students viable money-making skills as an alternative to the drug trade. It was a major coup for her to get the annual Street Soldiers conference held in Baltimore, and she and her students have been planning for months. They've secured speakers including the entertainer Sinbad and the actress Terri Vaughn, but I'll bet that the most powerful testimonials will come from the students themselves. Training will be offered in the roots of violence, risk factors for violent behavior, the rules of the street and the rules for living. 

Registration for the conference, to be held Friday, Oct. 17 and Saturday, Oct. 18, is open now. Students are admitted free, and city teachers are eligible for a discount on admission, which is $150 for both days (including breakfast and lunch). More information on the conference is available here. More information on Street Soldiers is here.