TOLEDO, Ohio — It's been exactly one week since the first Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods meeting at Epworth United Methodist Church. Founders Reverend Dr. Stephen Swisher and Carty Finkbeiner created the group in hopes of finding a solution to gun violence with community members and local leaders.
Since the meeting, Toledo has had at least four shootings, with three people killed: 67-year-old Gino Highsmith and 50-year-old Dennis Washington were shot and killed on Oct. 28 and 18-year-old Ronald Thomas was found shot and killed just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 29.
Shawn Mahone Sr attended the coalition's meeting. He runs the organization Young Men and Women For Change, also known as Change Academy, which also attempts to find solutions to gun violence.
In downtown toledo, at 232 North Huron Street, Mahone is running an event called Raising the Roof for our Youth. For three days, he'll stay on the roof of the building while also working to end gun violence.
"Come down here so we can have conversations with the parents and with the children," Mahone said. "We're asking the ones that are running for office to come down here. We also want parents who have lost someone to bring something of memory. So, we can go ahead and utilize that in their healing."
On the first day, he's practically alone and waiting for anyone to help join in the fight. Mahone admitted that gun violence is hard-fought and can be lonely work at times. But, he's not giving up.
"I never thought coming back to my community, to do something so positive, would turn out to be so negative," Mahone said. "But, at the end of the day, I'm a firm believer that, nothing changes if nothing changes."
He said taking a stance and taking accountability as a community member is what everyone should do. And he said it's what the Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods must do if they want to see change.
"That meeting was definitely necessary and needed to happen," Mahone said. "But, I think what we found in that room was, that there was an older population in that room. So, we have to ask ourselves the question, 'Are those, the older generation, ready to fight that battle?'"
Swisher's answer is that, since their first meeting, they've been getting ready.
"(The) most beneficial from last Thursday was people meeting each other from across different parts of the community," Swisher said. "'Let's share phone numbers, emails, let's get together.' We've been doing joint meetings and sidebar meetings since then."
During last week's forum, attendees were asked to give suggestions on good ways to end gun violence. Swisher said there were more than 150 suggestions. From those suggestions, the breakout meetings were working to create actionable plans.
"The next step is to start employing some of these suggestions," Swisher said. "Ones that we already had: restoring the block watch program, mentoring the kids that are at risk, dealing with folks who are in gangs and helping with more constructive ways of dealing with anger."
The next Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods meeting will be on Nov. 9 at St. Martin de Porres Church on Bancroft Street at 5:30 p.m.
Both the coalition's meeting and the Raising the Roof for our Youth events welcome parents, teens, community members and political leaders to join the fight in ending gun violence.