PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Community and faith leaders joined with law enforcement and policymakers in East Germantown Thursday to discuss their plan to combat gun violence through music and arts.
“It’s not enough to see and know about it and speak about statistics and what happened in the neighborhood – what are we doing about it?” said Lieutenant Stewart McCollum of the 35th police district.
“Before, it used to be what are they or what are you doing about it – no, we’re all stakeholders, we’re all invested in this community.”
The Funk not Fight gun violence forum at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ was centered on finding solutions, keeping the issue front and center and not becoming desensitized to the violence plaguing the city. The forum’s title is a play on words, suggesting people turn to music and the arts instead of violence.
McCollum says, usually, at other gun violence forums, people speak about crimes, have questions and leave with no answers.
“In this room, we have solutions and resources, which a lot of people are not aware of, and we’re going to go out into the community.”
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They had break-out sessions for things like mental health and trauma-informed care, hip hop and the arts and social media, with emphasis on the youth, as a growing number of both offenders and victims of gun violence are juveniles.
To combat this, Tiffany Chavous, executive director of Somerset Academy Early Learning Center, says the key is to start with children when they’re little and build them up each day.
“When we instill positivity into our children at 2, 3, 4, 5, that’s what trickles down,” Chavous said. “It trickles up, actually because when they get older, they remember.”
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Senator Sharif Street says there is no one single solution to this problem and the fight must be consistent.
“We have stakeholders here from childcare producers, law enforcement, medical doctors and grassroots community organizers,” Street said. “I think getting those folks in a space where they can collaborate will be part of how we get ourselves out.”