Music, smoke from a grill and conversation filled the air Tuesday night on the lawn of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd on Forrest Boulevard.
The event was not a church-related one, but rather one held by the Columbus Municipal School District as part of its Adopt-the-Block initiative. CMSD has led the charge by adopting Forrest Boulevard and McCrary Street and addressing the needs of the community there.
CMSD dubbed this initial meeting as a block party, inviting all residents of that area to enjoy a meal, dancing and fellowship and to discuss areas of concern with Superintendent Cherie Labat and other administrators. Whether the needs are picking up litter, creating a food pantry or little library, or holding financial literacy classes, CMSD volunteers are prepared to help the block in an effort to positively impact the Friendly City.
Joyce Butler is a resident of the area, and though she does not have children in the CMSD, she is concerned about the children who do live on the block.
“One of the things I would like to see happen is more after-school involvement,” Butler said. “Especially in the summer, the kids need something to do.
There’s a lot of gun violence around here, and if you have a positive force to keep them entertained, they won’t have time to get into things they shouldn’t.”
Volunteers who are invested in the success of their block came from all over the school district. There are teachers, administrators, support staff and employees from the district office involved in the initiative — all contributing from their own pockets.
Kim Gardner is the Columbus Middle School principal, and she is looking forward to making a difference in the community where she grew up and built her career.
“I’m from Columbus, born and raised,” Gardner said. “I live here on this block, but these are really all of my blocks. I am invested in the success of the city and the children here, so I jumped at the opportunity to help.”
Jaquela Harris is a mother of a CMSD student and a homeschooled student. One of the things she is looking for is more involvement and things to do as a neighborhood that will help her children.
“We need more things like (the block party),” Harris said. “This is great for the community to see that everyone is invested in helping the children here grow. I want my kids to be involved and have a no pressure environment to play.”
Freda Dismukes is the assistant principal at Columbus High School and is a product of CMSD, and like other volunteers, she was more than happy to throw herself into helping out her students and the neighborhood.
“We should be committed,” Dismukes said. “Columbus has an ‘us’ in it, and there is no ‘I’ in team. I want the community to know that, to feel comfortable to walk in the schools, to not be intimidated. This is your home. I needed to know that I felt welcome. Now that we’ve had this we can build off of it and have more people from the area get involved.”
The most common concerns residents had were more community involvement, activities for children to do beyond school walls, and transparency with the district. Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny) has been visiting the Columbus schools to speak about gun violence and address it head on.
Chicago CRED has a similar program to Adopt-the-Block, called Building Blocks of Peace where they have crews that include local faith leaders on the ground to prevent gun violence, and they have a team of therapists to help address trauma.
Craig Nash, director of community engagement with Chicago CRED, spoke about the mission of the organization and what they do to help those impacted by gun violence.
“We have boots on the ground when violence happens, and they also are connecting with those at-risk of being shot or of shooting to broker non-aggression agreements,” Nash said. “The faith-based community comes alongside that offering food, resources, connections with community services, hitting the blocks right after an incident. They follow up and make those connections so people don’t feel isolated after a tragedy.”
Labat brought in the group because this year seven CMSD students were victims of gun violence, and she knew something needed to be done.
“We’ve experienced a tremendous amount of gun violence, and we’ve lost kids to gun violence,” Labat said. “I was looking for help, for a blueprint instead of waiting for the next shooting. … We go to school to teach kids, not to bury them.”
Overall, Labat was pleased with the turnout to the event and is ready to show the community that they are loved and do have support from the school district.
“We asked the Columbus Police Department to give us the block with the most amount of shootings, so this is that block,” Labat said. “The parents here have been exciting and receptive. We’re excited to continue this endeavor, and we’ve had four other churches adopt a block. We’re taking our community back one block at a time.”
CMSD looks to have more events like the block party at the Episcopal church for the residents of Forrest and McCrary, and there will be summer programs available for the children in June to attend.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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