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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the first time, Jacksonville hosted the Group Violence Intervention Conference — part of the National Network For Safe Communities — to discuss strategies to fight gang violence and reduce shootings and murders in the city.
The three-day conference ended Thursday, and organizers said it was a huge success.
More than 250 participants from over 20 different cities attended the conference which has the main goal of cutting down on gang violence.
“As a child, I had a very troubling life in terms of going through a lot of different things like the foster care, being a child in the shelter,” Andre T. Mitchell said.
Besides being homeless and in foster care, Mitchell said he witnessed domestic violence within his own family. He said he joined a gang for protection and comradery.
“I believe really that a lot of times [that’s] what happens with most people that are involved in street life. They have their unresolved traumas,” Mitchell said.
Now, Mitchell is part of the solution. He was one of many presenters at the Group Violence Intervention Conference, which was also attended by police, prosecutors and preachers — coming together to fight this fight.
“We’ve got to touch each other. We’ve got to feel each other. We’ve got to empathize with each other to let people know that we’re still out here on the battlefield,” said Group Violence Intervention Coordinator, Pastor Garland Scott.
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As part of News4JAX Solutionaries series, we showed you Scott’s work.
He and a team identify at-risk youth and literally knock on their door to give them options to get out of gang life and violence.
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“We’re not moving crazy killers and shooters and stuff like that. We have a group that they’re not good. They’re not bad. They’re on the verge, and we can still help them,” Scott said.
At this morning’s awards ceremony, the crowd celebrated and honored members of the community for their compassion and concern — identifying those who need help most — and giving them the chance at a better life.
There have been 107 homicides in Jacksonville in 2023, and hundreds more shootings.
But Sheriff T.K. Waters believes despite the numbers, his agency and its partners are making a difference.
“We’re gonna keep working, man. Anything worth having is worth fighting for. We’re gonna fight. Continue to fight for the city,” the sheriff said.
Waters said he thinks their strategy is working.
“When you take a shooter and you turn him around and get them outside of the culture of shooting, you can’t see the future, but I can tell you if his past has been shooting and it’s not shooting anymore, guess what that means? That means we’ve made an impact,” Waters said.
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If you want to learn more about this initiative, you can call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-2500.
Watch our full story on Pastor Scott and his team’s visits to homes of at-risk youth in the video below.
