BATON ROUGE - Snip-It barber shop on Evangeline Street is hosting the 'Cuttin' Out Violence,' an event aiming to be a fun and safe community gathering ahead of the school year. 

There will be free food, school supplies, and haircuts, plus a conversation about gun violence in the community and how it's affecting the capital region. Leading the conversation will be Shawn White, a 25-year-old barber from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"I know I can relate to a lot of them, even the ones that aren't getting in trouble," White said. He said it's important for kids to hear from somebody who's been through that lifestyle and made it out."

White was an at-risk teen who engaged with the wrong crowd, he said, but now he's a successful barber in Phoenix, Arizona. He's visiting home just to be a part of this event. 

"I know for a fact I'm going to change a couple of lives," he said. "I'm going to get into a couple of kids' heads who need to hear it and hopefully when they walk out of the door they have a different mindset about themselves and think positive about their future."