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South Park Photo-Voice Project Receives
Major Funding
Sea Mar Community Health Center is located
in South
Park, a small neighborhood in
south Seattle
made up of about 35% Latinos, 30% white and 35% others races.
It is a mixed residential and industrial neighborhood that is a hub
for gun crime, sex work and drug trade.
In
April of 2005, after one of our residents was first on the scene at a
drive-by shooting of a teenager in front of the Community Center,
Sea Mar doctors wrote a letter to the police and mayor’s office pointing
out the continued violence in the largely minority neighborhood and the
need for intervention.
Police responded by stepping up foot and mounted beats.
A series of stings in conjunction with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in order to incarcerate and/or deport violent offenders were
met with mixed opinions, culminating in community
leaders and organizations applying for and receiving discretionary funds
of almost $300,000 through the mayor’s office for social programs
involving gang education and rehabilitation, parenting classes, ESL
classes, after school programs, and support for the local boxing gym.
Residents
from Swedish/Cherry Hill Family Medicine, along with Social Work and Public
Health professionals, City of Seattle Staff, and community volunteers
formed a committee to study the violence intervention.
This committee has since won a $10,700 Race and Social Justice grant from
the Mayor's Office to begin Phase I of the
South Park Photo-Voice Project, in which teens from the Community Center
will be given cameras to document violence in their neighborhood.
Eventually, local artists and writers will work to develop and display a
museum quality art show of these pictures and stories in order to gain
wider exposure for what is happening in South Park. |
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