On a recent sweltering July afternoon, Shameka Pierce carried a package of diapers and two boxes of wipes to a resident of Liberty City’s Lincoln Fields Apartments.
“Hello, hi, how are you? I’m back,” Pierce told the thankful resident. “You can let your mom know that we’ll supply more to her, probably in the next week.”
It may seem like a small gesture, but dropping off diapers and wipes is part of Pierce’s job and mission for the Circle of Brotherhood’s “Peacemakers” program. It’s a community−based organization that seeks to build trust and connect personally with those living in Miami neighborhoods wracked by gun violence. Their goal is to reduce crime, prevent violence, mentor youth and boost economic empowerment.
Last month, the Health Foundation of South Florida, the region’s largest philanthropic organization, awarded the group $290,000 to concentrate on Liberty City and Overtown, a neighborhood close to downtown Miami. The Peacemakers are part of a community−based violence intervention strategy used in other cities nationwide to successfully reduce gun violence and homicides.
"People feel good just to know that someone’s checking on them," said Brother Lyle Mohammad, executive director of the Circle of Brotherhood, which first formed in 2013.
The Circle of Brotherhood will use funding from the Health Foundation of South Florida to hire up to seven staff members. Muhammad hopes to get his team up to 10.
"When you canvas in hotspots, you unearth and get information about potential problems, potential services that are needed in the community," Muhammad said. "The canvassing effort is almost like putting a caring hand over that neighborhood and that community for that day."
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Peacemakers show up two to three times a week in the same communities. While people who live in parts of Miami beset by gun violence, like Liberty City and Overtown, will likely get help from police after a shooting, the Peacemakers want to get to the root cause of the violence by connecting with residents.
One of their main goals is to get ahead of violence by offering mentorship to boys and men. But they also help residents to obtain necessary items like diapers or food. If someone needs medical care and can’t afford a doctor, they’ll let them know about Miami Street Medicine, a nearby free medical clinic.
The people who work as Peacemakers say they’re committed to the work because they, too, know what it’s like to live in communities plagued by gun violence.
Lamont Nanton, Peacemakers program manager, said his team tries to approach anyone they see, especially people prone to get involved with gangs.
"Either people that have been shot, [or have a] likelihood to shoot," Nanton said. "'Cause the violence — if you do nothing, it’s inevitable."
One former resident, Earnest Hardy, now comes here in the hopes he can find boys to mentor so they avoid the path he took.
"You can end up like me in this wheelchair," said Hardy, who told WLRN that he got shot five times in Opa-Locka, a city roughly six miles north from the Lincoln Fields apartment complex.
After recovering, said Hardy, he was determined to change the course of his own life and show others a promising path. "What I did is go back to school and got my degree in social work," he said. "It’s like a wow moment for everybody when they see me.”
"Growing up in urban areas was hard. It’s hard mentally, physically, emotionally ... All we’re trying to do is build relationships and get our community the help and the resources that it needs."Olivia Eason of the Peacemakers
He also launched a nonprofit, EachOne ReachOne.
Mark Fulton recently started working with the Peacemakers. He's been advocating against gun violence since his then 17-year-old nephew, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot 11 years ago in Sanford, Fla.
A Florida jury later cleared neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman of all charges in the shooting of the unarmed black teenager whose killing attracted global media attention and unleashed furious debate over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice.
Fulton said he’s since changed his life around.
"No more jails, no more alcohol. I’ve been doing wrong all my life,” he said. “I became part of something positive and something right."
His teammate, Olivia Eason, feels the urgency of their work and knows the difference it can make.
"Growing up in urban areas was hard,” Eason said. “It’s hard mentally, physically, emotionally. I can relate to single moms. All we’re trying to do is build relationships and get our community the help and the resources that it needs."
Commitment to funding the work
The Health Foundation of South Florida’s chief executive officer, Loreen Chant, told WLRN that it’s committed to funding this work.
Said Chant: “When you think about our mission around improving health and wellbeing, and when you hear folks talking about gun violence truly being a public health issue, you realize that you cannot — if you care about addressing health disparities specifically in the Black community — you have got to address issues of community conditions."
The Circle of Brotherhood also receives federal dollars for its work. It was awarded a $2 million grant last year from the U.S. Justice Department to reduce community violence.
“The Peacemaker Program is a holistic program. It's about violence disruption, and that’s really important, but it goes beyond that," she said. "There's youth mentoring, there's social support and really connecting community members to help meet unmet needs.”
Dr. Roger McIntosh, an associate professor of cognitive behavioral neuroscience and health psychology at the University of Miami, said he worries about the serious impact that toxic stress has on the health of people who live in violent, neglected areas like those surrounding the Lincoln Fields Apartments.
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“You learn to become more callous,” said McIntosh. “You learn how to not express your emotions, you learn how to suppress as opposed to express emotions. And this obviously can lead to the build up and the frustrations which plague many folks in this population.”
McIntosh said local residents being able to talk to people like Peacemakers, who either have roots in the same neighborhoods or similar life experiences, can be critical in helping them cope.
Johnnie Sykes Muhammad is taking a break from peacemaking to heal from what he’s seen around the neighborhood over the years.
Some years ago he saw two boys he used to mentor get shot in broad daylight.
“It was an ambush and it was horrible,” Sykes Muhammad said. “The thing that really pushed me over the edge with that is at the time they didn’t clean up the crime scenes.”
He vividly remembers seeing human remains on the street the following day.
He now does a lot of gardening to cope with the trauma and stress, and when he’s ready, he’d like to rejoin the Peacemakers team.
For some, gun violence is just one challenge
For some Liberty City residents, like Sedrika Jacques, the gun violence is only part of the challenge faced by her and her Lincoln Fields Apartments neighbors.
"People shoot everywhere, but what my problem is right now is with our living conditions," Jacques said, standing on a sidewalk outside her apartment home. "We have mold inside our households. A lot of people inside here have children, and the kids are getting attacked by rodents."
She said she’s been dealing with these issues for almost four years at this complex, which is managed by Cambridge Management, Inc.
Based in Washington state, Cambridge Management, Inc. did not reply to phone calls and emails from WLRN regarding residents' complaints.
The Health Foundation of South Florida's Chant said responding to the needs of local Liberty City and Overtown residents is part of their ambitious goal. She said the Peacemaker program wants to connect and assist up to 1,200 people a month.
“The next piece of this is connecting to social services and helping people to get their needs met,” Chant said. “If there’s food insecurity, transportation challenges, mental health needs, substance abuse, we’ll be measuring how those children and those families are connected to those services in the community.”
Chant expressed confidence that given the trust the Circle of Brotherhood has built among residents in Liberty City and Overtown through Peacemakers that the rate of community violence will continue to decrease.
"We will not bring ourselves into a community with solutions that we believe in, but we will listen to the community and support solutions they believe in. So I think this is a fabulous example of what we aspired to do."
