When the 28-year-old Grammy-nominated rapper Takeoff was killed by gunfire outside of a Houston club in 2022, it rocked not just the Atlanta community, but changed the trajectory of many of his family members’ lives.
At Fortune ‘s Impact Initiative in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, Tatiana Davenport, Takeoff’s mother, and Edna Maddox, his grandmother, discussed how losing their family member spurred them to establish the Rocket Foundation , which is committed to ending gun violence in America. The rapper Quavo, Takeoff’s uncle and fellow member of the hip-hop group Migos, is also behind the initiative, and the foundation has disbursed nearly $300,000 in grants to prevent gun violence since it was set up in late 2022.
The family is far from the only one impacted by the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children and teens aged one to 19 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And around 54% of Americans say they or a family member have had a gun-related experience including being personally threatened with a gun, having a family member killed, personally witnessing someone being shot, or being shot themselves.