Activities, Challenges & Lesssons Learned

CHALLENGES

Tim Jennings-Bey thought he knew his community pretty well, yet he found himself completely unprepared to comprehend the extent to which young children are being emotionally impacted by the violence that is surrounding them. "The fabric of our community needs to be woven into a fine mesh of support to blanket these kids who have seemed to have lost hope. They need and deserve to know that we CARE! It is the responsibility of every single person in our County to do what they can to help address this problem and to support the great people who are on the front lines trying to do their best to initiate the "positive game change" that is needed. We are currently undergoing a county wide initiative to identify each and every successful community outreach program and create a partnership across these agencies. If you are one of these agencies who are actively addressing the challenges, we want to hear about your program.” Laurie Venditti. Email me at laurievenditti@me.com to be included in our program development.

ACTION HIGHLIGHTS

Written after a meeting with Tim Jennings-Bey and Helen Hudson, David Kaczynski wrote the following in his blog that captures the essence of what is driving this program initiative here in Syracuse.  

"Human beings don’t “get over” violence. Violence is not inevitable. If violence were hard-wired into human beings, most people would behave violently – yet most people do not resort to violence.

Violence is taught; and once taught, it has to be unlearned.

Violence destroys trust and community, so the antidote to violence must involve not only stopping the perpetrators of violence, but efforts designed to restore basic trust in humanity and efforts to reweave the fabric of community in the aftermath of violence."

http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/yet-another-tragedy/448/ (David Kaczynski)

ALLIES

Syracuse Police Department, Onondaga County Sheriff's Office, Syracuse Trauma Response Team - Timothy Jennings-Bey (AKA Noble) & Helen Hudson (Mothers Against Gun Violence).

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