AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) -
It is end of the school day for the children who live at the River Glen apartment complex and with big smiles on their faces, they head home. But those smiles hide the worries and fears that many of these young kids feel every day.
"A bullet doesn't have any name, so you don't know where its going to go," Carldaisha Golatt, who lives in the complex.
At just 10-years-old it is a big lesson for Carldaisha, who says hearing gunfire is pretty common in her neighborhood.
24-year-old Doniel Hicks and 27-year-old Truemaine Jones were both killed at River Glen this year, leaving the little girl on edge.
"It makes me nervous and it makes me feel bad for other people," says Carldaisha, about living in the neighborhood.
For the children of River Glen it can be hard to dream big, when they are constantly reminded how short life can be.
"They are definitely at risk because they are exposed to all sorts of things that kids should not be exposed to," says Patricia Hicks, a parole officer who runs a youth group at the complex.
"We asked them if they had ever seen or held a gun before and we had quite a few of them that had actually held a gun and these are kids that are in elementary school," she says.
Hicks says many of the kids at River Glen have had to grow up too fast.
"Most kids don't know anyone personally who has been killed, these kids actually know these people. I think that it kind of snatches some of the hopes that they have," says Hicks.
Those hopes are exactly what Hicks believes the children of River Glen need to hold on to.
"You can be anything you want to be, and a lot of them don't believe that right now," says Hicks.
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