District 1 held its town hall recently at the Dotch Community Center where community members met with District 1 Councilman Cory Penn to discuss community issues and solutions.
Community leaders, such as President of the Bay Area Women’s Coalition (BAWC) Leevones Fisher and Homeless Outreach Coordinator Kendell Young, Dr. Ashley Williams with USA Health Systems, Executive Director of Public Safety Rob Lasky, and Deputy Director of Public Safety Curtis Graves, were also in attendance. The five joined Councilman Penn as speakers for the forum.
The town hall began with Councilman Penn acknowledging and thanking community members from the Toulminville-Trinity Gardens Community Corporation and Ms. Fisher of BAWC for supporting the community food drive.
Mobile County Emergency Management Agency also recognized residents trained under the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program which “educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards.”
Community members who completed the training received weather radios to “assist others in their neighborhood or workplace…when professional responders are not immediately available to help”.
After acknowledgments, Williams, Lasky, Young, and Graves spoke on community programs in place to address issues ranging from community health to communal violence.
Dr. Williams shared more about her work as Director of USA’s Center for Health Communities (CHC), saying, “Half of my time is dedicated to community engagement, community outreach, and research.”
William spoke about the funds USA Health was awarded in partnership with the City of Mobile and Mobile County Health Department (MCHD) for a hospital-based violence intervention program.
“The whole goal is to merge the social aspect of care with the medical aspect of care,” she shared, explaining that violence intervention professionals working with CHC are going through community health work training and specialized training for violence interruption with the Health Alliance for Violence Violence Intervention (HAVI).
Williams also spoke on Project Inspire, a partnership with Strickland Youth Center to “provide education, exposure and mentorship” to youth with a gun offense.
“While the trauma center is home base, our classroom is really the community,” she shared.
She went on to cite the national recidivism, or reoffense, rate–40 to 60%–saying that though Mobile’s is 20% for all causes and 10% for gun-related causes, CHC is looking at “how to not lose those kids that have gone back into the system.”
Director Lasky talked to attendees about the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)–a partnership between the Mobile Police Department (MPD) and AltaPoint Health–which responds to mental health crises alongside officers. Meanwhile, Director Graves spoke about the MPD Family Intervention Team (FIT), which provides resources to support youth, families, schools, and communities.
“We are currently leading the state in our efforts as it relates to mental health,” Graves shared, adding that city efforts work to address the question “How do we train our officers on how to de-escalate people who are having their worst moment?”
When asked about the current efforts to build trust between Black communities like District 1 and institutions like hospitals and police that Black communities have historically deemed untrustworthy, Penn says that though he can’t speak for the institutions, his approach has been being actively engaged with his constituents.
“Any time I have an event, I ask [the community] to come and be actively engaged,” he shared.
Penn continued pointing to the success of CERT which utilizes community leaders to bridge the gap between residents and municipal institutions, saying this approach creates conversation and the relationships that his campaign has been built on.
