With temperatures climbing, kids out of school and money tight, a group of community activists came together Tuesday to look for ways to head off violence on the streets this summer.
Behind the meeting was the shadow cast by a recent spate of suspected gang-linked shootings and concern that the warm weather could usher in another summer of violence, like the one that plagued Denver in 1993.
By the time the meeting was over, the group agreed to put together a calendar of events that each organization could schedule within the communities where they operate.
And they plan to contact other nonprofits in neighborhoods hard-hit by gang violence and ask “each organization to step up and do public events,” said gang activist Terrence Roberts, an ex-gang member and founder of Prodigal Son Initiative.
Events as simple as a barbecue don’t require a lot of money, he said. “The simplest and easiest things we can do is all we are asking,” he said.
The meeting was held in Colorado state Sen. Mike Johnston’s northeast Denver office.
“If someone is planning a water fight and we are planning a barbecue, we don’t want to hold them on the same night,” Johnston cautioned.
Two men were killed and two wounded May 25 outside a medical-marijuana dispensary in Johnston’s district.
Shootings linked to gangs this spring weren’t the result of gang-on-gang warfare. Instead, the incidents were “beefs” between members of the same gangs or individuals from different groups, Roberts said.
“(1993) was community vs. community,” he said. “This is more personal beefs.”
The group, which included representatives from Mayor Michael Hancock’s office, is seeking to win the hearts and minds of youngsters at a time when outside funding has dried up and nonprofits are competing for the little available, said Jose Silva, a community activist.
After 1993, Silva said, there was money from the state, the city and charitable organizations that paid for improvements to recreation centers and helped run programs for young people. That funding has dwindled in the early part of this decade, Silva said.
The programs gave kids a voice and helped them connect with their communities in positive ways, Silva said. Without that connection, gangs are more alluring.
The drought in funding could hit recreation-starved youngsters especially hard this year. A community program that for the past three years has waived fees at Denver recreation centers and swimming pools for kids under age 17 is threatened.
The program was funded through a grant from Kaiser Permanente, and now the company and the city are discussing how funding can be arranged and whether the the program will look the same as in previous years.
Kids in neighborhoods such as Northeast Park Hill, where the Bloods street gang is active, are easy prey for gangsters seeking recruits, Roberts said.
And gangs don’t hesitate to spend the few dollars it costs to throw a barbecue or some other event where they can attract new members, he added.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
