It isn’t often that Veronica Moorer takes her two children out to play in her neighborhood.
In the Westside community where she lives, drugs and violence are more prevalent than balloons and face painting. But on Friday, the Chattanooga YMCA and Calvary Baptist Church teamed up to bring family-friendly fun to the College Hill Courts neighborhood by hosting a block party.
“We don’t go out that much because it’s not that great of an area,” said Ms. Moorer, 21. “And when we do, it’s to events like this. It’s good they do this because it’s really about trying to bring the community together to make it a better place.”
Joe Smith, program director for the YMCA’s Community Action Project, said he comes into the neighborhood a few times a year to hold programs aimed to keep kids off the streets. At Friday’s event, members of Calvary Baptist’s youth program put on a puppet show, made balloon animals and painted the faces of the neighborhood children.
Derrick Choice, 26, whose two young children live in the neighborhood with their mother, said the event highlights a need in the community for positive reinforcement.
“I think sometimes kids think certain people don’t care,” he said, “and it’s nice to have people come around every once in awhile and tell them they do good things, that it’s not always bad.”