CINCINNATI — As the city of Cincinnati ramps up efforts to curb violence through a new curfew, residents in North Fairmount are tackling this challenge in their own way.
The neighborhood community center is expanding after-school programs to provide structured activities during critical hours between school dismissal and the city's curfew time.
"It helps with [my] future self," said William Simpson, an attendee of the Movement with a Purpose Program based out of the North Fairmount Community Center.
"Idle hands are the devil's hands, so we need to get those hands busy in the evening," said Denise Collins, North Fairmount Program Director.
The goal for the North Fairmount Community Center and Movement with a Purpose is to provide a buffer zone for young people once they're home.
"If they're moving and they're around other kids, that's positive and other positive things, that'll give them a positive way to just release," said Shadaka Simpson, one of the leaders of the Movement with a Purpose fitness program.
At the center, they offer mental health resources, academic help and athletic activities in a neighborhood they describe as underserved.
WATCH: Hear how local youth feel about crime and what is being done to stop it
Among those benefiting is James Turner, a teen who has experienced gun violence firsthand.
"It was just the wrong place at the wrong time," Turner told WCPO.
The teen says he was shot 4 times last October.
"Three weeks before I was supposed to leave for the Air Force," Turner said. "It was a situation that happened with my sister, and I was trying to protect her."
Now Turner is involved in this effort in North Fairmount.
"I just thought about the consequences, and also I wanted to be a better person," Turner said.
Turner says the program is occupying his time and giving him a safe place.
Young participants like William Simpson Jr. believe the new curfew provides needed structure.
"I think it helps with others and how they wouldn't be and not roaming as much," Simpson Jr. said.
However, young people emphasize that the curfew won't mean much if there are no healthy alternatives to fill their time.
"They will like bring them places to be, but they won't make them feel safe," Simpson said. "They won't bring them to comfort and the things they want to do. They would think that the stuff that they want to do as kids is what kids would want to do nowadays. But some kids—all some kids want to do is just hoop, you know, play football, basketball. Some kids don't want to play video games or lay down all day."
WCPO has been listening to your concerns and solutions to crime all week and will continue to do so. You can tell us about what's going on in your neighborhood below.
