A simple plan is making sure that D.C. children who live in the troubled communities east of the Anacostia River see welcoming black male faces on their way to school in the mornings.

Four times a week, at the crack of dawn, Curtis Watkins and a group of men walk the streets greeting students in a process they call "Safe Passage". Their opening line is often: "Good morning, young brother! Good morning, young sister!"

Many of the men who walk the streets are ex-offenders searching for ways to give back to the communities they once committed crimes in.

(READ the story in the Washington Post)