Participants in the third Chattanooga Stand meeting put their names where it mattered Wednesday.
After two meetings covering the perceptions and realities of crime in Chattanooga, participants in the most recent meeting got a “speed-dating” taste of the variety of organizations that work on safety concerns in the city.
Two-foot-tall sheets of paper with the names of each group visitors heard about during the speed dates lined an interior wall of the Urban League.
At the end of the hour-long presentation, participants put their name tags under the group name that interested them most.
Cara and Montague Hicks, a Highland Park couple, said they’re looking to start volunteering in their neighborhood.
“We get to know our neighbors,” Mrs. Hicks said.
People who live on their street are not afraid to let her know if they see something out of the ordinary, she said. While searching for a house more than a year ago, the couple circled a block several times, she said. That aroused some curiosity from residents and a woman came to the road and tapped on their tinted window, asking if they needed anything.
The pair laughed at the assumption that they were up to no good, but said it was comforting to know people were watching.
During Wednesday’s meeting, held in the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga’s building on M.L. King Boulevard, each of the 10 groups had a few minutes at the podium in front of the 70-person crowd to present a brief explanation of what their organization does in the hope that participants
would choose to get involved.
John Bridger, program director for Community Impact, emphasized neighborhood block-level solutions for safety problems.
IF YOU GOWhat: Next Stand meetingWhen: 1-5 p.m. July 16; noon-4 p.m. July 17Where: Chauncey Good Auditorium at Tennessee Temple University, 1815 Union Ave.
Through the block leadership program, neighbors have built a “tool lending-library” that uses donated tools and lawn equipment to help homeowners maintain property and help senior citizens install motion detectors and peepholes as safety precautions, he said.
The meeting grew out of a 26,000-respondent survey in which Chattanoogans listed crime as their number two concern.
Stand held meetings beginning in June to share information and co-founder Josh McManus said the group now has moved into a more active phase of connecting volunteers with groups that target specific problems.
Groups involved in Wednesday’s meeting
* Policy Change to Address Delinquent Landlords
* Block Leadership Program
* Mentor Coalition
* InfraGuard Citizen Training
* Resource Guide for Women and Children
* Prescription Drug Disposal
* Cal Ripkin and Babe Ruth League
* Teen Leadership Initiative
* Youth Workforce Development
* ChattaData