YOUNGSTOWN Banquet speaker urges neighbors' involvement

By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- To make your community safer, look out for your neighbors and get involved, a nationally recognized violence-prevention advocate urged a banquet audience.
"Most people go home to their sealed houses and feel as if the problem is not theirs until they are immediately affected," said Yvonne Pointer-Triplett of Cleveland, author of the book "Beyond the Death of a Child."
"But when we can see that it [crime] does have an impact upon us, even if it's indirect, then that is our call to arms -- our call to say we must do something about this," she said. "If we are unified, then that makes us all one, so what affects you affects me as well," she added.
Pointer-Triplett was the speaker Monday night at the sixth annual Peace Award Banquet of the Mayor's Task Force on Crime and Violence Prevention, which was attended by about 210 people at The Youngstown Club.
Pointer-Triplett's daughter, Gloria, was abducted, raped and murdered in 1984. A witness heard a noise and saw a man climb a fence but did nothing other than call the property owner, who found Gloria's lifeless body. The case remains unsolved.
As for a suspect in the recent serial shootings in the Washington, D.C., area, Mrs. Pointer-Triplett said, "I guarantee you someone knows who that is. But because they don't want to get involved, they won't say, for whatever reason," possibly fear of retaliation. The only way these killings will stop is for someone to get involved, she added.
Participants
The banquet was attended by Youngstown City Council members, judges, clergy, social service agency workers, block watch leaders and victims of violence and their families. Proceeds went to the Help Hotline Crisis Center.
The awards were presented by Mayor George M. McKelvey and Pointer-Triplett to Dianne Schwartz of Canfield, a survivor of domestic abuse, who has become an advocate, author, speaker and teacher on this topic; Anna Marie Barksdale, a counselor of battered women at the YWCA's Barbara Wick Transitional House; Sojourner House for battered women and children; and the Seventh Ward Citizens' Coalition.
Also recognized were five members of Youth for Justice at the United Methodist Community Center: Anthony Crawford, James Lowry, Randy Hover, Shawn Wilson and Joshua Snipes. The youth group learns about and educates others on ways to resolve problems without violence.
"We're here to honor the advocates in the community. These are the people that work with the victims, sometimes one victim at a time, helping to make a difference in the world," said Duane Piccirilli, Help Hotline's executive director.
milliken@vindy.com