The Community Times Dispatch

Ecumenical Minister’s Association and community working together The results of varying efforts being employed by different committees and community organizations to reduce violence in Colleton County are continuing to expand. One goal of the Ecumenical Minister’s Association is to collaborate with individuals, families and community groups throughout Colleton County to increase safety and improve the quality of life within the county.

According to Reverend Leon Maxwell, Pastor of Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church in Round O, South Carolina, the ministers want to reach beyond the pulpit and the walls of their churches to provide pastor’s care within the community.

Mr. Israel Ray Hodges of the Springtown/Oakman Branch Neighborhood Crime Prevention Group addressed the association meeting, last Saturday at Jerusalem AME in the White Hall District, with a testament to some his community’s successes. He was invited to provide a model for other communities to adapt workable solutions in their area.

In effect, Hodges told the group that demonizing suspected criminals was not a tactic used to achieve success in his area.

“When we first got started, we sought to identify every issue people within our community saw as a problem,” Hodges said. “One of the first things we wanted to make known was that we weren’t trying to run anybody out of the community. We just wanted everyone to work together and to help the one’s making bad choices to see things our way.”

More than a dozen other members of the Springtown/Oakman Branch Crime Neighborhood Watch accompanied Hodges to echo his sentiments.

“One thing I want to tell you is not to bite off more than you can chew,” he said. Keep your efforts small so you can manage them.”

Kevin Holmes of Trinity AME Church gave a report of one of the association’s outreach initiatives. Holmes shared the concept of how members of the committee canvassed more than a dozen free lunch sites over the last thirty days to interact with youth on crime prevention efforts.

Holmes demonstration is another example of how inspired young people can take on projects to educate, inform, and engage others in the effort to have a safe vibrant community.