Love, Hope, Work: an action plan to address violence in New Orleans

by Westley Bayas III

" I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can' t give him that, then give him something to hope for. And if you can't give him that, just give him something to do."
-unknown
Over the last week, our city has been in great discussion over solutions to address violent crime in our city. Many people have expressed frustration, anger and sheer helplessness in our ability to deal with this complex problem. I wanted to take an opportunity to share my brief thoughts on steps we can take to start reclaiming New Orleans from the despair that we have lived in from quite some time. The solutions are pretty simple because in my experience, the most complex problem have the simplest solutions. At the same time, the simplest solutions are the most difficult to implement because simple solutions required a collective will to ACT & invest your own time/resources. I will not claim this is THE plan to follow, but hopefully it can continue the discussion around solutions. The plan, centered on three concepts, is as follows: Love (rebuilding the beloved community): Go out of your way to talk with your neighbors, especially the children, to build the relationship foundation. Children LOVE talking to and trying to impress adults. Special attention matters. Hold monthly block events (cookouts, block parties, etc.) to encourage neighbors to come out and interact with each other. Organize walks around the neighborhood (at least bi-weekly)focusing on ensure neighbors on different blocks are familiar with each other Emphasize love in every action you take, especially with children. A society devoid of love is a society filled with violence. Make restorative justice programs a staple of the New Orleans community, emphasizing understanding and love over blind revenge

Hope (providing an avenue of inspiration) Participate as a mentor to children either as a informal mentor with children in your neighborhood or through groups that ask for minimal amount of time like Son of a Saint & Silverback Society Actively pull the teenagers in your neighborhood into your work. Have them shadow you for hours at a time. Kevin Griffin of 2-Cent/Y2K Photo is developing this concept further so be on lookout Invest in increased mental health services for residents to deal with prior trauma. There should be an emphasis on providing these services to children in our most violent neighborhoods Recreate our education system to focus on building critical thinking, conflict resolution and problem solving skills that children can use every single day.

Complete the NOPD & Sheriffs Consent Decree ASAP to build community confidence in our law enforcement officers.

Work (creating a self- sustaining but connected community) Implement a One City, One Hire program, similar to the program that Washington D.C. created, to emphasize holistic hiring practices Create a job hiring floor to ensure that future opportunities are not low wage, unskilled labor employment. For those familiar with the United Kingdoms NRS Social Grading, this would ensure that a vast majority of jobs are at least C2 or higher. Revisit the living wage campaign from the early 2000s to determine if a policy can be passed to provide fair wages to all workers in New Orleans.

As I said, simple ideas that need a LOT of will and effort to implement. This plan isnt meant to be MY plan or to compete with the Mayors NOLA FOR LIFE murder reduction strategy , but a plan that we can ALL build on to address the overall violence and enhances the work of the City of New Orleans. I know some pieces are missing, so PLEASE give your solutions/ideas/feedback in the comments below. While the present may seem bleak, our future is bright..but we have to be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that light shines.