Hartford violence intervention groups start working on summer safety plan
Violence intervention leaders in Hartford are working on a safety plan for the city and police to consider this summer.
Nine representatives from community organizations and neighbors from the city’s north end attended a public safety summit at the Phillips Health Center on Thursday night.
The summit opened with a sound healing experience, meant to reduce stress and trauma that many experienced after two deadly police shootings of men in crisis.
“To reduce violence, you have to have healthy community and healthy communities have healthy individuals and healthy families,” Ken Green with the Greater Hartford Alliance of Black Social Workers said.
The mayor fired the police officer who shot Steven Jones, one of the men in crisis, causing tension between the city and the police union. The president of the union said of the firing that, “Dark days are ahead.”
Those words were tough to hear for residents, but Rev. AJ Johnson with the Center for Leadership and Justice, the group that organized the summit, said police are part of the solution to keeping neighborhoods safe.
“I struggle with this as a black African American male, I struggle with those words,” he said. “But I also know that the Hartford Police Department has some amazing people that work there as well. We at this time in moment, can’t allow that one statement to blot out all of the good people.”
Jones was shot on Blue Hills Avenue, in the north section of the city.
Last summer, four people were killed, and 29 were shot in the city. Three of those murders and 22 of those shootings were in the north end.
To get ahead of the violence, intervention groups and non-profits are brainstorming what prevention looks like.
“A safe summer in Hartford, for me, looks like with the kids are engaged in either recreational programs or educational programs,” Green explained.
Hartford Communities that Care is planning to host a six-week paid program for youth. They will be tasked with creating an anti-gun-violence social media campaign.
The goal of the summit is to identify ways organizations can work together to prevent violence from every angle.
“A safe summer in Hartford, means that we don’t lose more lives,” said Jacquelyn Santiago Nazario, Compass Youth Collaborative CEO, said. “We’re working together to not only provide activities for these youth, but also case management and other supports that they might need so that they are not targets of violence or engaging in activities that they shouldn’t be.”
A detailed safety plan is expected to be completed by the end of spring for submission to the city and police.
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