Residents in Virginia Beach’s Lake
Edward and Campus East neighborhoods are building trusting relationships with
city police thanks to the work of Western Bayside Churches United (WBCU) – an
alliance of Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, Enoch Baptist Church, and Heritage
United Methodist Church.
The three churches came together in
2010 with a simple mission – to make their neighborhood a better place to live.
The Western Bayside area of Virginia Beach is a community in which many residents are
struggling day to day and that has had one of the higher crime rates in the
city. But that’s quickly changing.
In August of 2014, WBCU teamed up with officers of Virginia Beach’s
third precinct in the Stop the Violence project. “One of the resident’s sons
was murdered. Nobody knew anything even though there was a crowd in the yard
when it happened. They were afraid to talk to the police,” explains Pastor
Michael Daniels of Enoch Baptist Church. “She asked the church what we could do
to help.”
The first step was a community meeting with the police, hosted by WBCU.
“We wanted to talk about what the community could do, how we can partner with
the precinct,” said the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson, rector of Good Samaritan Episcopal
Church. “We have to take responsibility for our community.”
Stop the Violence builds on WBCU’s existing semi-annual Community Days.
These events provided residents with, among other things, an opportunity to get
to know each other and city agencies and services. The church leaders realized
that the twice yearly events didn’t provide enough opportunity for residents to
build trusting relationships with police.
WBCU now hosts a monthly community meeting at Enoch Baptist Church for
residents, police officers, and civic leaders. Residents have the opportunity
to get to know each other and the police officers serving their neighborhood.
The project also encourages residents to join and use NextDoor.com, a social
network for neighborhoods. The goal is to have at least 50% of residents using
the site. The residents’ relationship with police has improved so much that
WBCU is also helping residents obtain grant funds to install security cameras
on their homes that will allow police to monitor activity in the neighborhood.
“People know the officers now. Police are getting calls now,” says
Wilkinson. “It’s made a huge impact on
crime here. Daniels agrees. “The neighborhood sees the police in a different
light now. The police are getting more tips. Crimes are being solved and there
is some prevention also.”
The community is talking and making decisions together to take steps to
reduce crime. “It came out at one of our monthly meetings that a local
playground was a drug hangout,” says Wilkinson. “So the community decided to
remove it.”
“One of the things we recognized is that the community had to change how
they view officers and neighbors,” says Daniels. “We want to help neighbors
feel more responsible for each other.”
