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Venus and Serena Williams Open A Center For Gun Violence Victims

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Venus and Serena Williams Open A Center For Gun Violence Victims Photo

by Kelsey Duchesne | 12/01/2016

Sisters (and, let's be real, the best sibling athletes of all time? DON'T FIGHT ME ON THIS) Venus and Serena Williams continue to be deeply impactful on and off the court. In their hometown of Compton, California, the sisters have founded the Yetunde Price Resource Center, a safe space to men and women affected by gun violence.

 @venuswilliams via Instagram

The center is named in the memory of  Venus and Serena’s late sister, who was a victim of gun violence in 2003. The center will provide safe spaces, resources, and a connection to service providers who can assist members who have suffered directly or indirectly suffered from gun violence. Complex reported in May that the murders in Compton tripled in 2016, making the center more crucial than ever.

“We’ll be taking our first [community members] in January, Serena told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show in November. “My sister had 3 kids, and they were all there to see the opening. It was so awesome, so heartwarming.”  

Serena credited her mother, Oracene Price, for maintaining structure in her nieces and nephews lives, but knows that not everyone has the same support system.

“The Yetunde Price Resource Center is  going to be available for people to recover, learn and have all of the resources they need,” she said.

In October, following the gun-related death of Philando Castile, Serena penned an open letter on Facebook, fearing for the future of her nephew and other black young people who come face-to-face with the police.

“Why did I have to think about this in 2016? Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives,” she wrote. “But I realized we must stride on- for it's not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go.”

by Kelsey Duchesne

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