In the wake of the Boxing Day gun battle on Yonge Street, a coalition of youth groups called on all levels of government to help solve the root causes of violence and not just crack down on gun crime.

Calling themselves the Toronto Youth Cabinet, the group publicly sent a list of demands to City Hall on Tuesday.

The coalition wants the city to:

• Fund youth-led projects throughout Toronto
• Invest more money for maintenance of existing youth facilities
• Hire 100 youths in co-op programs designed to provide job-skills training

Keegan Henry-Mathieu said stopping violent crime requires more than stiffer laws.

"It is intolerable for violence to be accepted as a fact of life in marginalized communities," he said.

The group said addressing root causes is the only way to provide a lasting solution to gun violence.

Kofi Hope spoke about the apathy felt by mostly African-Canadian youth.

"We have to realize that this isn't simply one bad apple and an issue of too many guns getting across the border," Hope said.

"Something has happened that has allowed a person to be pushed to this point and it's happened, unfortunately, over 50 times this summer."

The group wants to work with municipal, provincial and federal levels of government to develop programs aimed at easing the strain on high-risk groups.

"We need to support single parents. We need to support people who are in poverty. We need to support young people," said Hope.

"We need to help them get a strong sense of identity … and most importantly, to defeat the sense of alienation that has been taking control of them."

Monday's shooting death of a young girl provided the backdrop for The Toronto Youth Cabinet's news conference.

However, they say the death of an innocent bystander does not represent a crisis point. Toronto reached a crisis a long time ago, they said.

The group calls the shooting a turning point, and hopes all levels of government will work with them.