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Mayor Targets Youth Through Block Party

By July 19, 2013November 22nd, 2013No Comments
Friday, July 19, 2013 | WREG – Memphis, TN

(Memphis) Dozens gathered Friday afternoon at the Ed Rice community center for ‘Summer Night Lights,’ an event put on by the city in hopes of getting the Mayor’s Gun Down message out. “Intervening for someone who may be on the wrong path,” said Kerry Campbell from the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team. For the block parties on Friday nights the city keeps the community center pool open late, provides music, food and activities for families in Frayser. The city uses events like the bock party to get let families and teens know about programs in hopes of keeping them away from violence. There is also Midnight Basketball at Memphis Athletic Ministries in South Memphis on Saturday nights. “They were identified as hotspot areas where there kind of needed to be extra attention to address the youth gun violence. That’s why we are really heavily going in those areas,” said Campbell about the events in Frayser and South Memphis.

The city is also using Clear Channel Radio stations to get the message out. K-97 helped the city draw large crowds last year for the city’s guns for gas program. “We are connected to the community, so I think it’s a great time to get the word and say hey we are here and we are providing something during the summer,” said K-97’s Big Sue.  “Especially with it being summer time in Memphis you know crime can spike, we definitely want to provide something for young males,” added Big Sue.
For more information on the events, you can go to http://memphisgundown.org/.

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