CHARLOTTE — Community leaders said they are dedicated to making the Beatties Ford Road corridor a safer place to be.
After years of violence, the health director declared the violence to be a public health problem.
Now a group of violence interrupters said they are making a change, after facing setbacks due to staffing challenges.
Historically, the Beatties Ford Road corridor has had its share of problems when it comes to violence.
“You may see some incident. But we’re preventing a lot of incidents on the ground behind the scenes,” Fred Fogg with the local organization, Alternatives to Violence, said.
Fogg is the national director of Cure the Violence, a subset of Alternatives to Violence.
Cure the Violence employs violence interrupters.
Fogg said violence interrupters go out into the community throughout the day to prevent incidents from turning deadly.
“I’ve lived on Beatties Ford Road, so I know the majority of the people over here,” violence interrupter Leondra Garrett said. “Most people always feel more comfortable talking to people who look like them. Or dress like them. And have kind of been through the same things.”
Cure the Violence was established last summer. However, the program has had its issues.
“It was a rocky start. We can’t deny that,” said Carrie Cook, an executive director with GreenLight Fund. GreenLight Fund is one of Cure the Violence’s sponsors.
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Cook said the original Cure the Violence team was replaced in December.
“There has to be the right fit. There has to be the right crew. And do I think the guys were passionate about the work? No question. there was an incident that caused a series of things to happen. So unfortunately, that crew is no longer the crew that’s on the payroll here,” Cook said.
However, Cook said those difficulties did not slow down progress and the organization is focused on the good it is doing now.
“What we’ve seen with this program is that since it’s rolled out there has been a decrease in violent homicide events along the corridor. So we want to keep it up,” Cook said.
Cook said that even though the old team is gone, their work in the community has not been forgotten.
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