CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — In Champaign-Urbana, community members are seeking solutions to the problem of gun violence. This initiative follows a recent incident where two teenagers were fatally shot.
A meeting on Wednesday marked the third meeting on this topic in the last seven days.
An organizer mentioned that last week’s meeting aimed to give a platform to the relatives of gun violence victims. While acknowledging the importance of this, she stated that Wednesday’s focus was on developing long-term strategies to ensure community safety.
“We are looking to stop the violence in our community,” Chyna Figueroa-Dixon said.
Figueroa-Dixon said she took a step back after a shooting on June 29, where two 16-year-olds were killed.
“I used to share my thoughts on social media, but I wasn’t taking action or getting involved on the ground,” Figueroa-Dixon said. “This realization motivated me to organize the meetings since last week.”
The continued effort is taking in the thoughts of people from all backgrounds.
“I have a segment called Perspectives where moms give their perspective just in case it might be a different perspective than the next mom,” Figueroa-Dixon added.
Figueroa-Dixon said they’ll take these perspectives and use them to build a plan to move forward, one that the people at this meeting hope takes root beyond this weekend and into a Champaign-Urbana free of this crime.
“I want to make this a long-term thing. We can’t just go have one weekend, no kids dead. Well, how about we go one month, no kids dead? One year, no kids dead?” Figueroa-Dixon said. “Now we’ve got to redirect our energy to just really saving our kids, saving our streets and not allowing gun violence to take people out of our community. We want to put a stop to it.”
Figueroa-Dixon said that for anyone who couldn’t make this meeting, there is a similar event planned for Sunday at the Champaign Public Library at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
