When it comes to gun violence in the city of Toledo, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is expounding the value of improvement.
“This is a summer that has demonstrated improvement,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said to those gathered at a news conference Tuesday outside the Chester Zablocki Community Center in North Toledo.
He welcomed a new chapter in the city’s Save Our Community initiative in the area.
“It is not victory or completion but improvement on an issue that we have all been working on, which is gun violence,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said. “This is something that is happening all over the country, and we have faced it in Toledo, as well.”
Save Our Community is a program founded by Mr. Kapszukiewicz and his administration in August, 2021. It sends area residents into their own communities in order to build relationships that help stop gun violence before it starts.
Three key areas of interest were pinpointed at the outset of the program as targets for improvement. The first was the Junction/Englewood neighborhood in central Toledo which, officials said, showed improvement in quality of life by the end of 2021. Now focus shifts to the Lagrange neighborhood. Later this year, East Toledo will introduce the final three violence interrupters onto its streets.
David Bush, commissioner of Save Our Community, emphasized that the work of his organization, wherever it is placed, is continuous and that includes the Junction/Englewood neighborhood to this day.
Still, the model established in that neighborhood is one the organization plans on using as it expands.
“Shootings are down in that area,” Mr. Bush said of the Junction/Englewood neighborhood. “And we are continuing to make inroads as far as partnerships and collaborations in that community.”
Mr. Bush said one of the key factors in the success of the program he oversees is that the interrupters he employs live, work or play in the communities they are working in.
“Residents know these individuals who are canvassing and that means so much,” he said. “We have been very successful, and there is never really any negative feedback, usually just a handshake and a thumb up.”
At Tuesday’s conference, three new violence interrupters who will be walking the streets of Lagrange were introduced. Mr. Bush said that other than the essential neighborhood knowledge, he looks for certain innate characteristics as well.
“They have to have empathy,” said Mr. Bush, who thanked Mr. Kapszukiewicz, Safety Director Brian Byrd and deputy Safety Director Angel Tucker for helping him get acclimated in the role after taking over 81 days ago.
“They need to be experienced and be looking forward to the challenge,” Mr. Bush said of the violence interrupters. “They are building up that callus, and that is very important but first and foremost they need to be able to foster relationships.”
Christopher Matthews, one of the new violence interrupters, is someone that checks all of these boxes. After enduring a rough childhood and spending five years in prison he said he is devoting himself to helping others in his community, which is something that he has wanted to do for a long time.
“My father was murdered in ‘86 when I was 8 years old,” Mr. Matthews said. “With my mom and my aunt working I ‘jumped off the porch’ as we say, and was out in the community early.”
Mr. Matthews said he was a good kid and went to Catholic school but the 1980s were a hyper-masculine time and he had to be tough. When he was 20, he committed a home invasion in the Swanton area and was shot, which led to the period of incarceration, he said.
It was in prison, however, that he decided what his calling in life was. He said he committed the home invasion because he was trying to go to school and did not have much support and while in prison he continued pursuing that dream of an education.
While serving the five years, he worked toward an associate’s degree. After his release, he transferred to the University of Toledo where he received his bachelor’s degree, and then his master’s degree.
“The day I was released from prison I knew that I wanted to eventually, like I told my friend, create a paper trail that would nullify my criminal record,” Mr. Matthews said. “So I knew within myself that one day I wanted to talk back to the youth, before they go down that path. So I am utilizing my story here to tell them and point them in the right direction.”
First Published August 16, 2022, 9:19 p.m.
