He lost his brother to gun violence. Now he helps Columbus teens stay safe in Hilltop

When Georden Burton’s younger brother was shot and killed in August 2008, his life changed forever.

At the time, the 18-year-old was preparing to head off to his first quarter at Ohio University, where he planned to study political science in hopes of becoming president one day.

He delayed for a quarter when his 16-year-old brother Garrett was shot and killed in the backyard of a far West Side home.

Then, Burton’s memories get a little cloudy.

“Your whole life turns upside down,” Burton said, recalling the days after his brother’s death. “It’s just a blur. It just doesn’t feel real.”

The only thing that brought him any peace in the grief and chaos was helping others. A friend encouraged him to take food to people experiencing homelessness on Parsons Avenue, and he felt peace for the first time in days while he was serving food to those in need.

“It distracted me from all the crazy stuff I was going through,” Burton said. “I see other people going through it, struggling. … It helped to take me out of myself for that moment.”

Today, he’s made helping others his life’s work as the director of the J. Ashburn Jr. Boys & Girls Club on the West Side.

Hilltop club helps youth stay safe from gun violence

The halls of J. Ashburn Jr. Boys & Girls Club are full of children’s laughter, Burton’s encouragement and a sense of safety the children who go there aren’t as likely to find elsewhere.

Burton has taken the loss of his brother nearly 17 years ago and turned his pain into a mission to be like Garrett and to help Hilltop youth.

“He was always helping someone,” Burton said of Garrett, who he remembers giving his iPod to someone one day. “He was always giving and uplifting people. … He was way more focused on other people than I was. He just always wanted to make somebody smile.”

Now, Burton strives to do that, too, through his work at J. Ashburn and on the Hilltop.

“I see a lot of the hurt, there’s a lot of lost people here, like I felt,” Burton said. “I can take what’s happening outside these doors and shift or evolve it.”

The Boys & Girls Club helps children and teens reach their full potential and know there are good people in the world that care about them, Burton said.

He hopes the experiences young people have at the club help them build resiliency, balance out the roughness of life and show them the world isn’t all bad.

“I just want them to always remember they are valued and they’re loved and they deserve to do whatever it is their heart desires,” Burton said. “I want them to leave here with the skills to navigate the world in a healthy way.”

Part of that is helping young people express and channel their emotions through sports, music, art and relationships with trained adults.

Brooklyn Rutter, 17, has been going to the J. Ashburn club since she was in second grade. She got interested in art through opportunities to experiment with it at the club and, when she thought about quitting, Burton encouraged her to stick with it. Now, she’s planning to attend college for graphic design.

“Most kids my age are doing drugs or having kids,” Rutter said. But, the spray painting, drawing and painting she gets to do at the club after school calms her down, helps her channel her emotions positively and gives her a sense of peace, she said.

That safe space and sense of peace is at the forefront of what the clubs do, said Nakai Willis, career and workforce readiness director with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio.

“We have fully trained healthy adults that can lead them in better directions and help them prepare for great futures,” she said.

Turning trauma into prevention

One of those adults is Burton, who said his own experience with trauma and losing his brother at a young age helps him counsel the youth he works with through their own struggles, including around gun violence they may experience.

Like Burton, some club members have been personally affected or know someone directly affected by gun violence, Willis said.

“It’s not something you read about, it’s someone you know,” she said.

“It is a concern for them and I think the more opportunities we give to listen to youth voices, the more we see they really have the same goals for themselves we may have for them,” Willis said. “We just need to give them space to express themselves.”

That’s a big part of what Burton does.

“I just listen and I help,” he said. “I affirm the things they’re feeling.”

He helps them process their feelings and channel their emotions into healthy behavior instead of violence.

“Youth just resonate with him tremendously,” Willis said, of Burton. “They trust his opinion, they trust his guidance and his leadership and he builds the relationships first.”

When teens and staff enter the building, Burton greets them with a hug. When the children sit down in the gym for the start of after-school programming, he starts by asking the few dozen kids if anyone has told them they’re loved today, to a reception of cheers.

“You’re amazing,” he says. “We love you very much.”

His motto is: “Share the love and protect the peace.”

“I tell them I love them every day, that’s how I start off every day,” Burton said. “We’re not just an after school program. … We impact lives here.”

Read The Columbus Dispatch article here

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio, which has 11 clubs locally, is developing a resource rally through its Anti-Gun Violence Campaign. This year’s event is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on June 20 at the Milo Grogan Club at 1000 Cleveland Avenue. It’s open to all area teens, whether they are club members or not, though they are asked to register online at www.bgccentralohio.org

Underserved Communities Reporter Danae King can be reached at dking@dispatch.com or on X at @DanaeKing.