Councilman Conwell Speaks Up About Crime To Those Hurt Most

"78% of the homicides in the City of Cleveland are African American Males murdering each another!" was the small print I first noticed on the flier stuck between the bars on Snag's Glenville door, when I stopped by the other day.  The flier is for a Young African American Males Resource Fair, hosted by Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell [1]. As stated on the flier, "The purpose of the Resource Fair is to provide young African American males in our community with the information they need to be successful". This is Conwell's approach to attack the root causes of murder in Cleveland, by working from the roots-up.

This will provide attendees with job education opportunities, fatherhood information and record expunging info. This is an excellent program that makes a big difference to the people served.

East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer hosted an x-offender program in his community, in 2006, which attracted hundreds of people [2].

Such hands-on, one-stop approaches to confronting core social challenges like workforce reentry, fatherhood and training makes sense, and bringing that to the community is the most effective approach.

As I looked more closely at the flier, I noticed something else interesting... the featured photo [3] was one I took last fall during the Obama campaign, when I was covering an event. There couldn't be a better, more appropriate use for it now.