Nekenya has been doing violence prevention work for 17 years in the Austin community. In 2017, he started as an Outreach Worker with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago. He has been promoted three times and currently holds the Outreach and Intervention Manager position. He has conducted more than 1500 conflict mediations that were resolved without any violent incidents. Nekenya also recruited key individuals to participate in the FLIP program who went on to become fulltime Nonviolence Chicago staff and assisted many high risk young men get a Commercial Driver’s License.  Nekenya was introduced into violence prevention after he was shot. He was convinced not to retaliate by family and a Nonviolence Chicago outreach worker. When he realized how he was helping his community, he discovered he had a passion for violence prevention. That same passion still drives Nekenya to build the Beloved Community.