Greater Hartford NAACP: ‘One murder is too many.’ Here’s what it’s doing to address violence.
The Greater Hartford Branch of the NAACP is launching a new initiative with the goal of addressing the issues behind violence in the city and adjoining communities by sharing access to community resources.
Through the initiative, dubbed “Wake Up Wednesdays,” volunteer members of the Greater Hartford Branch of the NAACP will set up a booth at Unity Plaza at 255 Barbour St. to work to provide community resources and foster unity and trust within the community every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Greater Hartford NAACP President Corrie Betts said the aim is for the initiative to provide hope, while bridging the gap between residents and needed resources. The organization will work with other community groups to determine what residents need.
“There’s so many resources within our city…We have to go to the people. We have folks that don’t know how close food pantries are,” he said, citing one example.
“Let’s just bring it to the people, I think when we do that, in the state that our community is in, it gives them that hope that has been lost – especially when it comes to violence,” he said. “We’re gonna be here, we’re gonna be here every Wednesday to let you know that we’re supporting you guys. We’re not afraid.”
“And let’s build community…there are resources for them: mental health services, jobs, education, I need everybody out here to just let the community know, we are wrapping our arms around you. And we want to make sure that we are part of the things that really need to be changed,” he said.
The mission is a personal one for Betts as he grew up in the city and has been in close proximity to gun violence, he said.
He said the gun violence and fatal shootings are “heartbreaking.”
“One murder is too many. But when you’re dealing with 28 deaths and 40,000 people in the city, we’re not even a big city like Chicago,” he said. “Population wise, we’re beating Chicago in murders. That’s horrible. So I think it’s very important. I grew up here. I grew up on Martin Street. I’m close to it. And every time something would happen in our neighborhood, my mom would say, ‘You all have got to do something about this, baby.”
Betts said he see a community losing hope and he wants to use this opportunity to “do whatever I can do to assist in helping our community, galvanize and come together as a community.
“Unity, individuals knowing who their neighbors are. It’s gonna be consistent, because our communities have lost hope. They lost trust, that we have to bring it back to them,” he said.
NAACP member and volunteer Donna Long said that she has lived in this area for 39 years and hopes that the initiative will begin to bring the community together.
“That everyone knows that we’re one, we’re looking out for each other. The NAACP is playing a great part in our neighborhood, and just in the world at large,” she said. “I just hate to see how things are changing, but we are just trying to pull things together, let everyone know that they’re not alone.”
She said the recent gun violence is painful as she recalls happier times in the neighborhood, when things were more positive.
“There’s a loss of hope is no hope in the neighborhood and we just need to come together and let them know that there’s someone out here that can help them,” she said.
Residents and mother and daughter Ebony Adams and Johaunna Neal both said the violence has impacted their lives.
Adams recalled an incident involving her young nephew who was afraid to go outside after hearing gunshots. She said he was about 9 at the time and and she heard three or four gunshots.
“I heard him screaming, hollering, and crying. I went out of my room to go into my mother’s room to see what was going on,” she said. “And my mother was telling me that he had got scared due to the gunshots and I had to basically console him a lot with my mother. It’s ridiculous.”
Adams said she tells Neal to be careful each time she leaves the house, as she does not want her daughter to become the next victim of gun violence.
Neal said she recalled watching as a resident was shot.
“I was hanging outside of Albany and Garden across the street from CHS. I go across the street to get something to drink. Everybody’s outside, we chillin’ and stuff like that. Next thing you know, I hear something go ‘pow pow!’ I looked at my friends and say ‘what the (expletive) was that?
“I watched somebody get shot. They ran from across the street. It was a gas station across the street…They got shot in the leg,” she said.
“Every time I turn around, somebody gets shot, somebody’s always fighting. It doesn’t make any sense,” Neal said.
NAACP Connecticut State Conference President Scot X. Esdaile said that there is mass murder going on in the city and across the country. He said he and Betts will contact all the call the CEOs of the major companies and corporations in the city to meet with them, to seek change and garner more resources.
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“At the end of the day, we got to dig in,” he said. “Demand that they bring the resources to the people to do God’s work. Food, shelter, clothing, everything. So this is where NAACP needs to be.”
Esdaile said the gun violence makes him sick.
“No more playing games. This is starting with nothing. Let’s build it from that. We’ll do whatever we have to do to raise the money,” he said.
Community leader and New Hope Christian Ministries Pastor Donald Johnson said he believes the new initiative addresses the need to bring recovery to the community and that clergy must play a role, collaborating with the NAACP.
“I’m a little disappointed that my spiritual colleagues (are not present), I’m just going to believe that they just haven’t been informed yet. But I do see that the power that we’re looking for is going to come when those masses come together…I hope that the NAACP will stay with this and continue to do this, because we need a platform,” he said.
His said his prayer for the community is that this new initiative will bring about positive change.