San Diego Compassion Project<\/a>. “Just about anything in the world that is painful is on this block.”<\/p>\nBrown goes into communities throughout San Diego after there’s been a murder to help families cope with the trauma. She said she’s never seen the kind of effort she’s helping facilitate on 44th Street.<\/p>\n
Mid-City Police Lt. Eric Hays agrees.<\/p>\n
“Initially when an incident occurs, you get the crisis intervention response and things of that nature,” Hays said. “But after the very first time, they\u2019re left with this grieving process to deal with on their own.”<\/p>\n
Hays is working with McCoy and Clark to get their neighborhood watch going. He’s also encouraging officers to get out and walk the block with the men.<\/p>\n
One of the needs identified by residents at the meetings was a stronger relationship with the police.<\/p>\n
McCoy and Clark, who together have seven decades on the block, said they never met their community officer before Rickquese’s murder. African-American and Latino parents at the meetings said they’re not sure they’d feel comfortable calling for help. Their teens have been pulled over too many times for petty infractions.<\/p>\n
For Brown, the block’s work with the police hints at something bigger than bringing resources to the underserved; it has a chance to change social systems.<\/p>\n
Neighbors are tackling their immediate emotional needs, but they’re also trying to change the institutions and ideologies around them that created those needs. Brown said that, in this respect, their work mirrors a social ecological model.<\/p>\n
Clark puts it this way:<\/p>\n
“An unhappy kid will take unhappy ways. In other words, if I don\u2019t feel good, I\u2019m going to get even. But if they\u2019ve been treated good and they trust us, then they give back happy.”<\/p>\n
Story continues below.<\/em><\/p>\n