YOUNGSTOWN — Following the release last year of the acclaimed Youngstown short film “Give Me The Gun,” a professionally filmed project teaching lessons about gun violence, a second project now available on YouTube touches on similar themes.

This one is called “Time to Make a Change,” and it features Dominic Patterson, the same young man who drew viewers into the plight of a teen whose older brother had been killed by gun violence in last year’s short film. The Mahoning County Juvenile Court paid for the project and collaborated with the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown, which provided some of the actors.

In “Time To Make A Change,” Youngstown teen Lashaun acquires a gun to address offensive remarks about Lashaun being posted on social media by another area male known as Man Man.

It shows Lashaun arriving at Glenwood Community Park on Youngstown’s South Side with a basketball, where Man Man taunts Lashaun in front of some girls, and Lashaun lifts up his shirt to show the handgun in his waistband.

“OK, I got something for you. Don’t even worry about it,” Man Man says as he slides off through the basketball court with the parting words, “You better get ready.”

One of the girls seems to encourage the violence with an admiring comment about Lashaun’s behavior, while another girl says, “Can you believe he pulled a gun on him like that? What is you doing? You ain’t got to be flashing a gun at everybody.”

A short time later, Lashaun and two friends hear a car pass and simultaneous gunshots and get on the ground. One of the boys gets out his phone to call 911, but Lashaun pulls out his gun and says, “Don’t call nobody. I got this.”

Lashaun calls the friend who sold him the gun and tells him about the gunfire, and the friend says he’ll be right there. But a police officer, played by real-life Youngstown officer Ryan Curry, intercepted Lashaun before anything happened and arrested Lashaun on juvenile gun possession.

But the taunting continues on Instagram, and Lashaun tells one of the friends who was with him on the basketball court “I can’t let him disrespect me like that.”

But the friend responds, “Bro, you literally got me and Mikhi shot at. Listen, think about your family. Man Man ain’t kidding around. You need to think about what you’re doing.”

While Lashaun is at home, gunshots are heard, sending his mother and sister to the floor and providing an eye opener for Lashaun when his mother makes him move out.

“Take a look around. Open your eyes. This is all your fault,” his mother, played by Edna Edmonds, project manager at the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown, told him.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick said the juvenile court asked OK Inc. of Twinsburg and its Operation Keepsake to make a second short film this year on gun violence because “I think everyone knows it has been an issue that we are all facing right now.” She said the film accurately shows how difficult it can be to convince some young people to walk away from violent situations.

She said one of the things she liked was how it “showed the importance of the family, the importance of a father. And even if the father is absent, it shows the need for family support to surround our children and be there for them, and that is what happened in this case. It takes everybody to be involved and to do something and say something.”

She said that included Lashaun’s friends, who were asking “Where are you? Why aren’t you back in school?” You have to stay in touch with him, and his friends did.”

She said credit for some of the realism of the film goes to the students, because OK Inc. asked for the students’ input in making the film, such as what issues are the most important to them, and their input while filming, Dellick said.

One of the scenes was filmed at Glenwood Community Park on the South Side, which is next to a parking lot where Te’Nya McKinley, an 18-year-old Thiel College freshman and 2023 Chaney High School graduate was killed by gunfire June 9.

Youngstown police said at the time a “car meet” was taking place in the parking lot. Police described the car meet as people in vehicles disregarding traffic laws, the safety of themselves and others. No arrests have been made in the killing. Youngstown had 23 homicides in 2023 and has had 17 so far this year.

Capt. Jason Simon, head of detectives at the Youngstown Police Department and a 24-year veteran of the department, viewed “Time To Make A Change” and said it “sadly portrays some ultra-realistic, genuine situations that many youths find themselves in today.”

He said, “As I watched, nearly every scene took me back to some real-life scenario I have personally observed in my time as a police officer here in Youngstown. The struggle for respect on the streets, the dismay at having to attend school, the taunting of others on social media platforms, the need to feel one has to carry a gun to earn respect are all authentic portrayals of the direction many young men (and women) find themselves traveling.”

But Simon said the video also aptly shows that there are healthy ways to resolve conflict, and there’s “always hope for one’s future.”

“There are many risks our youth face on the streets, but we must always come together as a community to outweigh those risks with education, a strong sense of family, support and love for our children and for each other,” he said.

Simon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Youngstown, which he said is one of the groups “working to teach our children healthy conflict resolution skills.” He said, “We all have the capability to make a difference.”

The Mahoning County Juvenile Court received an Ohio Department of Youth Services RECLAIM Ohio grant to pay for the production of the films.

OK Inc. of Twinsburg and its Operation Keepsake also produced several other films this year in collaboration with several local schools. They are South Range middle school and high school, Chaney Middle School, Wilson Alternative School, Salem Middle School and Mathews Middle School.

The films can be viewed at www.youtube.com/@OKInc

There will be an awards ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at the DeYor Performing Arts Center, 260 W. Federal Street, to recognize the good work done in the films. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend. Viewers of the films on YouTube can LIKE their favorite one and help determine the winner of the Best Short Film Award.

The juvenile court will use its film in programming for students at the juvenile justice center, as well as out in the community and elsewhere, Dellick said. Operation Keepsake also shows the films to schools in an 11-county area of Northeast Ohio.