I had the chance to attend and volunteer at the “Love is…” community event on Sunday. This family fun day was led by the Marion County Commission on Youth through the collaboration of Stop the Violence Indy, the Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition and He Cares Inc.

It was a fun event with a cookout and games, which was different from the other panel discussions, teach-ins and advocacy days I have attended in the past. I learned how positive change is possible through smaller community engagements, including uplifting events like the one on Sunday.

The event took place at the Bertha Ross Park on Clifton Street. The significance behind this location is that four months ago at the same park, where children were playing, there was a shooting that severely injured the victim with shots in his abdomen, hand, shoulder, wrist, back, elbow, armpit and hip by a .22 caliber Glock 44.

The goal of the event was to reduce violence through unity of community members who share a frustration with the dangers of their streets. Something that stuck with me was that the President of He Cares Inc., Lenerd McKinney, talked about how important it is to raise youth in an environment that fosters their needs and dreams to be successful because witnessing crimes and being desensitized to it from a young age only allows cyclical problems to continue.

McKinney said that it is wrong that children fear playing outside because they could get caught in “friendly fire” which, in fact, isn’t friendly at all. Bullet shots hurt the same regardless who ends up taking them and what the intention was. 

I enjoyed being there and seeing families and neighbors of all ages laughing, talking and playing with one another. It humanizes the issues we face, allowing me to see people and not statistics or broad, complicated problems that are discouraging to work toward solutions for.