Faith groups come together in Youngstown to ‘Stop the Violence’
Salena Zito
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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Last June, Pastor Kenneth Simon of New Bethel Baptist Church led a group of people from the faith community, along with any neighbor who wanted to join, through the city’s North Side neighborhood, calling for prayer and an end to the violence that has plagued the community.
The city was still trying to recover a sense of calm after the violent crime wave of 2021, when a fatal shooting in Crandall Park on the city’s north side rattled the faith community. They decided the best thing they could do was show by example that when people work together for a common purpose, change happens.
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So pastors, community leaders, and the people who live in Youngstown, including Police Chief Carl Davis and Mayor Tito Brown, all showed up and marched a mile through the North Side, as children and families waved in support of their efforts.
Mayor Brown said he’d like to think the ‘Stop the Violence’ marches work. “The number of homicides are down, and that is a good thing,” he said.
The year 2021 marked the second straight year the city experienced a staggering increase in violence. There were a total of 139 shootings that year, 31 of them homicides. Those numbers dropped to 73 shootings and 22 homicides in 2022.
For perspective, in 2019 there had been just 40 shootings.
This past Sunday, Mayor Brown said he, the faith community, and Chief Davis were out in force again for what has now become a monthly walk thanks in large part to the faith leaders in the city.
It is a show of force for good that hasn’t lost its mission.
Brown explained that when the group walks, they stop at several corners and pray.
“We pray for different things and different people and things that happened,” he said. “This last Sunday, we walked the neighborhood [where] there was a shootout with two individuals and the one did die, but it was over a friendship they had for years and all ended over a lack of communication.”
So they prayed for communication at that corner.
“What do we want? Peace. When do we want it? Now. What’s our message? Stop the violence,” the group chanted for over 45 minutes as they made their way from the North Side pool down Todd Lane, turning onto Guadalupe, then Redondo to Belmont, and back up to Todd in a broad one-mile swoop.
“We started at the North Side Swimming Pool, which for us, those young people in the pool, this is who we’re walking for, to keep them safe and also to get them aware of how to keep themselves safe,” Brown said.
The pastors, clergy, and community leaders don’t just walk once a month — they also offer mediation and mentorship programs to prevent violence.
Brown said he is humbled to walk shoulder to shoulder to effect meaningful change in his community.
“Walking together like this feels like I’m not in this by myself, that everybody’s figuring out what is their part and all working together to be part of something bigger than ourselves,” he said.
Brown said some people attend every single march, while others show up when the march takes place in their neighborhood, or in an area they grew up in.
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“The one piece that really sticks out in my mind and all the time that we’ve been doing this over the last couple of years is that when we walk down the street, the neighbors come out and they take pictures and they join in on our chants and they clap and they thank us for just taking the opportunity,” Brown said.
He believes the visibility has made a difference.
“They know they are not alone, that they’re not in it by themselves. We’re not in it by ourselves. And we can all do something together,” he said, adding, “That is a very American quality, purpose and coming together, and that’s what we are doing out here.”