The City of Norfolk is getting help from the Newark Community Street Team, a New Jersey based organization to combat crime.
The Newark Community Street Team is providing violence intervention training to local groups who already have boots on the ground.
"What the Newark Street Team has done is train our street teams here for procedures and best practices," Norfolk Councilman John Paige said. "We need to have boots on the ground in every part of the city."
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Kya Barnes, a Norfolk resident, says something needed to be done after she says Norfolk’s Young Terrace neighborhood was plagued by crime.
"It was a lot of violence. Kids were scared to walk to school and get on the bus because there were shootings," said Barnes.
Five women were shot and three were killed in a mass shooting in Young Terrace in 2021.
Barnes says she and kids in the area feel safer since the Community 1st organization came to the area four months ago.
"They make sure the kids get on the bus safe because it was a lot of gun violence," Barnes said.
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Community 1st is one the organizations receiving violence intervention training from the Newark Community Street Team.
"They’ll provide training to help us set up infrastructure. They taught us about public safety and how we’re just as important of another branch of the city government," Clay Marquez said, the founder of Community 1st.
Marquez says they are in Norfolk neighborhoods 6 days a week and provide clothes and shoes to kids.
"We come out here as a unit to make sure our community is safe. We have a contract with the city. But even before the contract, we were out here," Marquez said.
Barnes and other Norfolk parents have noticed the change.
"It’s not that much gun violence anymore since they’ve been here," Barnes said.
