Safety through Community Building
By Richard Johnson

Safety for me brings to mind a beat officer preventing a crime, a NERT member rescuing me in an emergency, Josh feeding a hungry child, Ms Aubrey’s kindergarten art works, Barbara Wenger’s Peace Wall project and Mo’ Magic’s Summer Reading Program all working together as community partners to foster a safe and caring community. This is not a vision to me - but a reality - it is part of my daily routine, for I wear many hats in my neighborhood and have for quite some time. My long time involvement, almost 20 years in many groups, has given me a unique insight into the many reasons why our community has been so resilient. Our community has been very fortunate to have a core group of individuals working together as partners over many years to develop a community policing model that is driven by community building.

Hayes Valley as a neighborhood has a long history of community building. We have gone from a neighborhood that was overcome by crime and violence to one that shares with other neighborhoods our insight into community policing. I, along with others, was recruited and mentored in the basics of Community Policing. The essence of our success is that the model has been both designed and driven from the ground up. We created our vision of a safe and caring community and this vision has been realized due to our willingness to partner and collaborate with others. Our vision of safety is broad in nature as we not only look to stop crime but to look at the root causes and work as a community to find permanent solutions for them.

In keeping with our commitment to facilitate discussion of important issues that impact our community, Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association invites you to an evening discussion about public safety on Thursday, May 28th. We have invited City leaders, department heads, police, NERT, Mo’Magic and other partners who collaborate with us in moving from reactive to proactive solutions.