THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 9, 1994 TAG: 9410070303
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY W. KEVIN ARMSTRONG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Crime tops the list of public concerns in just about any opinion poll. It's the subject of every politician's campaign. And, unfortunately, it's all too often the lead story of the day's news.
But at least one group of residents and community leaders is joining forces to do something about it. And they're enlisting other citizens' help to ebb the rising tide of violence.
On Friday, the Virginia Beach Crime Prevention Steering Committee will sponsor a daylong community forum at St. Nicholas Catholic Church, titled ``Virginia Beach: A Community Acting Against Crime.'' The committee will highlight crime prevention efforts already under way in the city, offer several workshops to get others involved and discuss new approaches that could be used in Virginia Beach.
Enoch Isa Saunders, a nationally known consultant on prevention, program planning and community partnerships, will be the keynote speaker. Five workshops will be offered during the morning. After lunch, participants will be divided into four groups to discuss what they heard and how they can turn their ideas into action within their neighborhoods.
The forum has been in the works for about six months, explained Dorothy Traub, a steering committee member and past chairman. It is designed as a follow-up to a breakfast meeting the steering committee held in March 1993. At that meeting, the committee distributed a resource booklet featuring about 45 organizations around the city that were involved in some way in crime prevention.
Those groups, Traub said, include everything from neighborhood watch programs to recreational outlets for youth. Representatives from each were invited to that meeting to share a little about their efforts.
Traub said the resource list has grown to about 75 groups since then.
``There are so many groups doing things in the city,'' Traub said. ``So many groups are off on their own. We thought we'd put these people together.''
The forum is planned to do just that. And an updated booklet will be distributed to all participants.
Traub, however, stressed that the forum is open to anyone, whether they're already involved in some effort or would like to be part of one.
Lunch will be provided free, and transportation and child care can be arranged for anyone wanting to get involved.
More than 100 people are expected to attend.
Traub said the forum is also timed to coincide with national Crime Prevention Month, which is marked each October.
One activity already planned is ``Turn Off the Violence Day,'' which is set for Oct. 27. Citizens will be asked to turn off music that promotes violence, not attend any violent movies, not rent videos that contain violent material and choose to solve problems in non-violent ways.
That effort was started four years ago in Minnesota, Traub said.
She'd like to see Virginia Beach residents get involved, but wonders whether people understand the effort it might take. Most people, Traub said, don't realize the extent to which violence pervades our everyday lives.
``Just for myself,'' she said, ``I've gone out to rent some videos for myself and found that three-fourths of them are the violent ones.''
Getting people to think about it even for 24 hours would be an incredible effort, she admitted.
``It would be almost like we were living in a vacuum for one whole day,'' Traub said.
That, however, is only one of many ideas the crime prevention steering committee hopes will evolve from the forum.
``We're hoping there will be lots of things going on around the city,'' Traub said. by CNB