Community leaders in Fort Worth are fed up with violence and have launched a new initiative focused on community reform in an effort to reduce violent crime in the city’s south side.
Pastor Kyev Tatum of the New Mount Rose Baptist Church held a meeting, where about two dozen community members gathered to discuss the initiative.
The meeting was called almost a week after four young adults were shot and killed in a car in Fort Worth’s Morningside neighborhood along Jessamine Street.
Police said three of the victims died at the scene and the fourth victim was transported to an area hospital but did not survive his injuries, according to a news release on Fort Worth Police Department’s Twitter account.
The four people who died were identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office as Marc Boyd Jr.,17; Ricky Craddock, 19; Amari’yon Cravin, 17; and Jason Nash,17.
“No one would debate that what happened to them, was the consequence of what they were engaged in. No one would debate that,” said Tatum.
“Here’s our debate. Our concern is, those young boys still belonged to somebody’s baby.”
Tatum launched the new initiative named the Promise Zone, which consists of community members and leaders who want to confront issues facing the city’s south side.
The issues range from reading and writing to lower life expectancy rates. The idea is to identify what the community still needs to thrive and inspire people to not get involved with crime.
“We have four young men who died in a drug-related incident, and no one seems to care,” Tatum continued. “It became compelling to me that no one is going to come in and care for us until we care for us.”
Former gang member Felton Jenkins will be a part of the new initiative and said that one of the young men shot was his cousin.
“I was hurt deeply because the change we need to put in our community is, ‘how can we grab them and love them?’,” Jenkins said, referring to his cousin’s death.
Jenkins has spent the past 11 years trying to inspire youth in Fort Worth to not become involved in gang activity.
“I go into the drug houses. I go to the car washes. I walk anywhere. There could be guns anywhere, and I walk in the midst of guns and love on these kids, but I can’t do it by myself. We all need each other,” said Jenkins.
“Now I want to be a real leader. I want to show these kids no matter who you are or what you’ve been through, how many times you’ve been to prison, how many felonies you got on your background, how many kids you got, it [doesn’t] matter. You can make that change. Look at me.”
The next meeting on the initiative will be on Thursday, October 27.
May God Bless this intiative!!
While they act in the most unloving ways, these trouble kids are searching for love and acceptance in gangs to replace what they don’t get at home. The gang becomes their family.
They need good male role models to mentor these young men.
Instead of doing that they want to talk about them
While I’m not condemning any initiative to help are youth.
I am asking that you stop using our boys for your platform. You know nothing of the situation the developing story hasn’t been picked up by the media.
I sincerely pray that the heart of this initiative is in the right place. No permission has been granted to use our boys as the campaign poster child.
You say you know they belong to somebody. I confirm they do and we would appreciate it if we could grieve in private.