Shifting the Tide

The South Dallas Crime and Safety Task Force (an initiative of the FCE, a group involved in working with the community to better South Dallas) met with the ASA staff yesterday to hear what our parents/staff had to say.

Though the task force had originally wanted to do a survey in Turner Courts, Sylvia and Wyshina did an amazing job of communicating more pressing issues specific to our Turner Courts/Rochester Park community. By the end of the meeting the group had changed their agenda somewhat.

They invited a few of us to be on the Put it in Action bus tour (a bus with police, city leaders, and community members that goes through South Dallas so the residents can identify crime spots and police and city leaders will take notice and take action).

They offered to train our key community leaders in some strategies and ways to approach different sectors of our city that we usually have problems with (police and such).

Omar Jahwar, Director of Vision Regeneration and a gang prevention and intervention specialist, is going to work with some of his guys who hang out around Turner Courts to become our “protectors” because little girls are being followed after school by men in cars.

Ms. Hill has invited us to be her guest at the Southeast Dallas crime watch so she can introduce us to Paula Hill, the chief (I believe) of the Southeast division.

Changa, a good friend and leader of the New Black Panthers, has done some great work in organizing communities to help prevent crime. He has agreed to explore some of those options with us.

And, finally, the committee agreed to begin talking to us to find out what is already offered in TC and to look toward an asset approach of what we are already doing in TC.

I felt energized after that meeting. It is encouraging to know that there are people willing to assist us in creating the most positive community possible!

I am also so encouraged by the strong leadership Sylvia and Wyshina demonstrate on a regular basis. We welcome your involvement in this process. Let us know if you want to be involved. We are stronger together than we are separately.