Name: Project Macon: Peace Week coming soon as organization working to reshape Pleasant Hill
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Project Macon: Peace Week coming soon as organization working to reshape Pleasant Hill

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944dd1024577205dcfd1bd58ff159cf4183d57e723b9c7bd7a6259739d8262f83035868d52786a04by Brittany MillerFri, October 6th 2023, 2:57 PM UTCthumb_158141.pngMACON, Ga. -- What looks like an average home on 1st Avenue in Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood, doesn't have an average family inside."We're 'unc' now to a lot of the kids. They know we're always here," L.J. Malone said. Inside the four walls is a group looking to interrupt the cruel crimes plaguing Bibb County, it's called Cure Violence Macon."We are on the ground 24/7. This is no part-time work. This is no 'Okay we'll see you during this hour...' Everyone on our team is committed. This is our job," Frank Dixon shared. Malone and Dixon are the site supervisor and community engagement &amp; resource specialist for Cure Violence. According to them, it's a global organization that uses data to direct a public health approach to do exactly what the organization is called, curing violence. Right now that work is focused in Pleasant Hill."Cure violence program is essentially like recreating the village," Malone explained, "That's a really simple way of putting it. Pleasant Hill was already in a position for us to have the momentum in creating that village."Malone says aside from crime statistics for the area, the rich history of the Pleasant Hill neighborhood coupled with already engaged and involved neighbors is what set the stage for the organization to set up shop there.When it was first established in Macon, Cure Violence received over $800,000 in grant dollars from the Macon Violence Prevention program.MORE PROJECT MACON: 'It's not an exact science.' Measuring Macon's Violence Prevention planIt allows for those full-time staff members to take on a caseload of high-risk individuals. They perform direct engagement with them, like one-on-one conflict resolution and even mediation when it's needed."We know that once we have one shooting, the likelihood of having another shooting in retaliation goes up. So, if we can put a stopper on that, you know really get these young men and women to at least consider not retaliating. Find out what the beef is about. And try to mediate it, through use of our violence interrupters, we help the ecosystem, we help the community, and we help our city," Dixon said. They also help the city by hosting events like the one they are planning right now: Peace Week."Peace Week gives us the opportunity to show what that change looks like. How a person can progress or develop something different other than what they were doing before," Malone said. Strategically scheduled the same week Bibb County students are on fall break, Peace Week is designed to encourage seven days of nonviolence.Beginning October 9th, Cure Violence is hosting a family-friendly event each day, from a community resource fair to a movie in the park."People always saying 'the youth have nothing to do. It's nothing to do positive.' We're showing you that you can have every day of the week, doing something positive, something fun, and engaging. And it's not boring it's not lame or corny. None of that," Malone said. He and Dixon believe events like Peace Week and the round-the-clock work their team does in Pleasant Hill, show the community how devoted they are to effecting change there. Saying in the case of finding a cure to violence in Macon, consistency is the key."Right now we have all these murders and crimes and things like that," Malone began, "People lose hope. So you know, they don't want to go out of their homes, they don't want to do anything new, they don't want to meet people. We're trying to get away from that and make it feel like a community again."Read more Project Macon storiesLoading ...

944dd1024577205dcfd1bd58ff159cf4183d57e723b9c7bd7a6259739d8262f83035868d52786a04by Brittany MillerFri, October 6th 2023, 2:57 PM UTCthumb_158141.pngMACON, Ga. -- What looks like an average home on 1st Avenue in Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood, doesn't have an average family inside."We're 'unc' now to a lot of the kids. They know we're always here," L.J. Malone said. Inside the four walls is a group looking to interrupt the cruel crimes plaguing Bibb County, it's called Cure Violence Macon."We are on the ground 24/7. This is no part-time work. This is no 'Okay we'll see you during this...

Project Macon: Peace Week coming soon as organization working to reshape Pleasant Hill

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