Cincinnati Residents of North Fairmount are addressing this issue in their own unique manner as the city of Cincinnati intensifies its efforts to reduce violence by enacting a new curfew.
In order to offer organized activities during the crucial hours between school dismissal and the city’s curfew time, the local community center is growing its after-school programming.
“It helps with [my] future self,” William Simpson, a participant in the North Fairmount Community Center-based Movement with a Purpose Program, stated.
North Fairmount Program Director Denise Collins stated, “We need to keep those hands occupied in the evening because idle hands are the devil’s hands.”
Movement with a Purpose and the North Fairmount Community Center aim to give young people a safe haven after they return home.
One of the founders of the Movement with a Purpose fitness program, Shadaka Simpson, stated, “If they’re moving and they’re around other kids, that’s positive and other positive things, that’ll give them a positive way to just release.”
In an area they characterize as underserved, the center provides academic assistance, mental health support, and sports opportunities.
Listen to the opinions of local youth regarding crime and the efforts being made to prevent it.
James Turner, a teenager who has personally witnessed gun violence, is one of the beneficiaries.
“It was just the wrong place at the wrong time,” Turner told WCPO.
The teenager claims that last October, he was shot four times.
“Three weeks before I was supposed to leave for the Air Force,” Turner stated. “It was a situation that happened with my sister, and I was trying to protect her.”
Turner is currently working on this project in North Fairmount.
“I just thought about the consequences, and also I wanted to be a better person,” Turner stated.
Turner claims that the program is providing him with a safe haven and keeping him busy.
William Simpson Jr. and other young participants think the new curfew offers much-needed stability.
“I think it helps with others and how they wouldn’t be and not roaming as much,” said Simpson Jr.
Young people, however, stress that if there are no good ways to pass the time, the curfew won’t mean much.
“They will like bring them places to be, but they won’t make them feel safe,” Simpson stated. “They won’t let them do the things they want to do or take them to comfort. They would assume that children today would want to do the same things that they did as children. However, there are those youngsters who just want to play basketball, football, or hoop. Some children choose not to spend their days lying down or playing electronic games.
Throughout the week, WCPO has listened to your worries and suggestions for combating crime, and it will keep doing so. Below, you can share with us what’s happening in your neighborhood.
