Growing up in New Britain, Devione Tanksley faced hardships that he said so many in his city are still facing today. Now, he’s trying to change that.

“The majority of minorities in the city have been affected [by] poverty, [by] violence [and] people have had [Department of Children and Family] in their family,” Tanksley, an Independent candidate running for mayor of New Britain, said. “I’ve seen friends and family members get [taken] away when I was young.”

Tanksley, 33, described his childhood in New Britain as being filled with “trauma,” citing his mother’s struggle with addiction and his father’s battle with the prison system.

“When I speak of poverty, I’ve been through poverty,” Tanksley said. “When I speak about DCF, DCF was in my mom’s life [and] me and my brother got sent to my grandmother’s at a young age when my mother was struggling with drugs.”

Tanksley said that he and his community growing up had also endured police brutality, street violence and eviction, all of which he noted as a driving force behind his campaign.

After struggling throughout his childhood, Tanksley said he realized the path he was on was one he didn’t have to continue. From that moment on, he knew something had to change.

“I entered into a world after I changed my life — a world of business, economics and technology,” Tanksley said. “I realized there’s more out there but 80 percent of the community don’t know that.”

Tanksley, a father of seven and an entrepreneur who runs the “New Britain Legacies Youth Development & Basketball Program,” said he plans to continue building businesses that create jobs and provide students with educational extracurricular activities.

Along with plans to revamp the city’s education system — such as allocating funds for math and reading programs — Tanksley stressed that New Britain should be a hotspot for entertainment and community development.

“If given the opportunity, I could save so many kids in our community because a person like me will give them hope,” Tanksley — who said he’s running as an independent to try to bring Democrats and Republicans together — said. “I look like the people in my community, I talk like the people in my community, but I also have a business mindset.”

Up against first-time Democratic candidate Christopher Porcher and incumbent Republic Mayor Erin Stewart, Tanksley said his ultimate goal is to work with those he says have been forgotten.

“You have to be able to connect with the poor, connect with the homeless, connect with the middle-class, the working-class, the rich, the business owners,” Tanksley said. “I decided to run all because of that right there, and I feel that I bring value to the table.”

Polls in New Britain and across Connecticut will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5.