Indy Ten Point Coalition heads to Tennessee to talk of crime prevention
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Some cities across the country are reaching out to the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition for help preventing crime.
Members of the faith-based group are heading to Nashville to talk about ways to curb the violence.
The Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition will meet with community and clergy members in Nashville this week.
The Rev. Charles Harrison told 24-Hour News 8 he got a phone call from a pastor a couple of months ago. He said the pastor is hoping to start a Ten Point in Nashville after seeing more and more violent crime in their city.
In the sanctuary of Barnes United Methodist Church, Harrison is preparing for a trip more than 280 miles away to Tennessee.
“Apparently, Nashville has seen a dramatic increase in nonfatal shootings and homicides and they were just talking about how the violence seems to be escalating in Nashville,” he said.
According to WISH-TV’s sister station WKRN in Nashville, homicides for the city are up 63 percent from 2016. Harrison said community and clergy members want to address the problem by putting together a model like Ten Point.
“It is a model that is based on a grassroots model,” he said.
Harrison said he believes to have an impact violence, you must get everyone involved.
“You have to get neighborhoods, you have to get residents, you have to get community groups involved and partnerships with police and city governments and the businesses in the community,” he said.
The Indy Ten Point Coalition has seen success in the Butler Tarkington neighborhood. Harrison said the neighborhood is a month away from going two years without a homicide and part of that model includes neighborhood patrols.
“We have kind of use that Butler Tarkington model as a model that we have replicated in other neighborhoods on the west side and it’s the model we use when we go to other cities,” he said.
Other cities like Kokomo and Muncie have already started their own versions of Ten Point and the list continues to grow. The list includes Cleveland; Louisville, Ky.; and the Indiana cities of Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Gary, Kokomo, Muncie, Richmond, East Chicago and Anderson.
“Our hope is that we continue to be contacted by cities across the country,” Harrison said. “We believe that this is a national issue that deserves national attention.”
Harrison said they are going to Nashville on Friday and Saturday. They’re also looking to host a National Urban Youth Violence Summit in Indianapolis next spring.