Known as Queen Mother, Fattah is the President and CEO of the House of Umoja, located at 56th and Master, in West Philadelphia.For 40 years, she ran a residential program for at-risk males. Her new program will focus on 15 to 18-year-olds. "They are the ones doing the most dying."
Fattah says they have trained professionals coming in who will teach things like coping and forgiveness. "Social media has now become the parent. I noticed that this is a drug society and that whatever is wrong, you just take a pill. We have to begin with you think before you act and so how does the brain operate? How do you go from saying that you have a right to kill somebody to understanding that nobody has that right?" Fattah questioned."Hurt people, hurt people and we, as a people, in our DNA, are very hurt people. Over 400 years and we’ve experienced a great deal of hurt.
Fattah and her team are also looking at a different approach to teaching compassion by bringing in a professional dog trainer, for example, in the way that it’s helped veterans and people with disabilities cope. "When you have a pet, you know you have to take care of that pet. It must be fed, he has to have exercise. So, you’re learning how to care. If you care, you don’t kill," Fattah remarked."I don’t know too many families in Philadelphia where they don’t know somebody who has been shot at or someone who has been killed," Fattah added. "I’m very hopeful. I’m optimistic."