Moonshot Community Spotlight: Deshawn Hunter

We are thrilled to spotlight members of our community doing hard, beautiful, and important work. Our Moonshot Community Spotlight blog series highlights people, beyond Moonshot Fellows, who have been impacted or involved with Moonshot ventures.

Today, we highlight Deshawn Hunter, a facilitator with Words Beyond Walls, an organization created by Megan Casimir, a Cohort 4 Moonshot Fellow.

Deshawn Hunter, a facilitator with Words Beyond Walls

I’ve known Megan Casimir since 2015. We talked awhile back in January of 2020, and Megan asked me what I thought of this new idea she had for an organization. I told her I thought it was a great idea. That fall, she got into the Moonshot Fellowship, and kept building. In August of 2021, I started work as a facilitator with Words Beyond Walls.

Words Beyond Walls supports young adults from the Eastside of Denver to lead healing circles, arts-based workshops, and drop-in community care for teens aged 12-19. WBW practices violence intervention and interruption from a community care lens.

I work to facilitate conversations with the WBW teens. I would describe myself as kind and respectful, and I think that helps me connect with others. We talk to the youth, ask them how their day and week have been, checking in on how things have been going. We play basketball and video games, relax with music (I’m listening to a lot of Drake these days), and have fun. We work to keep them from getting into the streets, and honestly, it helps me, too.

The reason I do the work I do at WBW is because I like seeing everyone calm and trying to have a good time even when you have a bad day. What drives me is just to help the youth because I really didn't have that growing up.

I’d love to see more schools, rec centers, and stores that are open and really for the youth of Denver. I enjoy getting to know more people through Words Beyond Walls, and I’m proud of our community.