“All people is afraid to like one another round right here, precisely for what it’s: a excessive crime space,” Nikel Brooks stated. “And I would like everybody to really feel cherished.”
JACKSONVILLE, Florida – Northwest Jacksonville has already had at the least 13 shootings, 4 of them deadly, to start out the brand new 12 months, in response to First Coast Information data.
Some folks residing within the crime-ridden 32209 zip code imagine that cleansing the streets actually means cleansing the streets.
Two moms’ mission is solely to make their neighborhoods lovely once more.
‘Be a change, wherever you need to see a change’ is the motto of Nikel Brooks and his enterprise accomplice Moné Cohen.
“Everyone seems to be afraid to like one another round right here, precisely for what it’s: a excessive crime space,” stated Nikel Brooks. “And I would like everybody to really feel cherished.”
The 2 girls are elevating younger households in the neighborhood the place they grew up, within the 32209 zip code. Northwest Jacksonville can also be the place they’ve each misplaced relations to murder. Brooks’ brother Errin was murdered in 2014, whereas Cohen misplaced his father Monte in 2003.
Moms imagine that a greater life for his or her youngsters in 32209 begins with the rubbish collected on the street.
“I do not need them to get caught up within the negativity of the zip code or this space, this world at massive,” Brooks defined.
And they’re prepared to steer residents, who’re keen on getting their arms soiled, and doing cleanings a few times a month.
“I really feel like if we begin cleansing and folks see that there’s a optimistic power on this neighborhood, perhaps a few of the unfavourable issues will go away,” Brooks stated.
The ladies are additionally partnering with the Metropolis of Jacksonville and its Neighborhood Based mostly Crime Discount Program, which is launching a cleanup collection of its personal on the Northwest facet.
Program chief Kendra Mervin stated the primary cleanup within the Durkeeville and New City neighborhoods can be subsequent Saturday, February 13, and Brooks and Cohen are excited to hitch.
“I really feel like if you wish to see change, you must provoke,” Brooks described. “You need to begin someplace.
Mervin stated Brooks can also be the third neighborhood member to be requested to serve on this system’s high quality of life subcommittee.
A 2018 College of Pennsylvania examine exhibits a relationship between neighborhood cleanliness and crime. It discovered that neighborhoods the place vacant heaps had been cleared skilled a 29% discount in firearm violence and a 22% lower in robberies.
