Anti-crime group gives VOICE to united effort


The countywide working group on crime and related issues is nameless no more.

From now on, the group can speak with a single VOICE: Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence.

Both the acronym and the name’s implication of a general vision of a better Vance County appealed to the roughly 20 people at the group’s meeting Wednesday morning at the Aycock Recreation Complex.

The umbrella group brings together representatives of city and county government, the schools, law enforcement, youth services, social services, the District Attorney’s Office, the business community, churches, health and mental health care, and other concerned area residents who are eager for a comprehensive communitywide approach to crime and its causes. Wednesday, the group added a congressional voice with the attendance of Dollie Burwell, who runs Rep. G.K. Butterfield’s district office in Weldon.

VOICE expressed its purpose in a mission statement the group unanimously approved after picking a name: “To engage the active participation of all segments of the community for the purpose of improving the public safety, welfare and sense of security for Henderson and Vance County.”

That statement was a group effort, going through repeated revisions to capture the idea that VOICE wants to involve anyone and everyone with an interest in the quality of life in Vance County. The group does not want to limit its ambition or potential reach at this point.

Team Vance leader Marolyn Rasheed made the motion to accept the final formulation of the mission statement, and Assistant District Attorney Quon Bridges seconded the motion.

Bridges also seconded the earlier motion on the group’s name, moved by City Council member Lonnie Davis. The vote for VOICE was unanimous.

The group spent some time playing with possible names and, just as important, the resulting acronyms during its meeting March 16. Henderson City Manager Eric Williams, who has run the group’s meetings in lieu of an elected leadership, asked for further submissions after nothing quite worked.

The group’s acting secretary, Donna Stearns, part of the Youth Services Division staff organized through the Recreation Department, received one e-mailed submission with four possibilities: Allied Community Team Improving Our Neighborhoods, or ACTION; Vance Improvement Coalition Empowered to Rescue Our Youth, or VICEROY; Henderson Improvement Team, or HIT; and VOICE. Another possibility, CAT, or Community Action Team, came up during Wednesday’s meeting.

The group focused on ACTION and VOICE. Burwell, for one, said she liked ACTION better than VOICE but wasn’t as happy with the full name because of the use of “allied” and the lack of a location.

So VOICE it is, even though no one seemed to know the name’s creator. The name of the e-mail’s sender is phony: “Kram Niawt,” which is Mark Twain spelled backward. In a subsequent e-mail exchange, Kram Niawt declined to reveal his or her secret.

“At least I know which meeting I’m going to” now that the group has a name, joked Bill Edwards, the president of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce.

It was the fourth meeting of the group, which developed as an outgrowth of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence because of the perceived need to bring additional money into the county to address its problem.

Wednesday’s discussion of the mission statement made clear that “the active participation of all segments” includes the pursuit of federal, state and foundation grants to fill the gaps in local services.

That pursuit was the focus of the meeting after the group created its name and mission statement.

Williams and County Manager Jerry Ayscue met with the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments’ Neil Mallory and Ben Foti recently to discuss grant writing. Williams said that although Mallory couldn’t offer a full-time staffer to assist with writing grants, he did promise COG staff support for VOICE’s efforts. It’s all part of a collaborative effort, Williams said.

Recreation Director Alan Gill told the group about a two-year grant the Youth Services Division is receiving from the Governor’s Crime Commission to help teens learn anger management and conflict resolution.

The good news on that grant came this week, at the same time that the Police Department and the COG learned that the Governor’s Crime Commission was turning down their grant applications.

Police Chief Glen Allen said he had two grants kicked back, one for an arson task force and the other for technology infrastructure. The COG’s Alex Fonvielle said he had a six-county, $400,000 gang initiative turned down, despite the sort of multijurisdictional cooperation that usually scores well in grant writing.

Allen said the problem is that the usual grant sources are drying up as the federal government funnels more and more money through the Department of Homeland Security. And County Manager Jerry Ayscue said the state and big cities are siphoning off that money before it can reach areas such as Vance County.

“We’ve heard people speak in these meetings about there’s a lot of federal money out there that you can get,” Allen said. “Well, there are some, but just like everything else in our economy, there’s less and less.” He said federal law enforcement grants are 10 percent to 15 percent of what they were five years ago.

Regarding federal programs, Rasheed urged Henderson to pursue designation as part of the anti-drug Weed and Seed program. Williams agreed that Weed and Seed could be crucial to the city.

Allen said he’ll make the preliminary contacts with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in preparation for the fall application. He also warned that administering Weed and Seed is so labor-intensive that it almost requires a full-time position, but he said the program would be a good opportunity for city-county cooperation in law enforcement.

Rasheed said she’s willing to help get the Weed and Seed program running.

Burwell also reminded the group that sometimes there’s a way around the bureaucracy, at least when it comes to federal funding. Her boss, Butterfield, can earmark funding for particular uses in Henderson and Vance. “The more creative the proposal is … the better the opportunity for funding.”