The Valdosta Daily Times — VALDOSTA — Finding a solution to the problem of violence, especially youth violence, was the goal of a forum held Friday at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.

Lead by Bishop Wade S. McCrae, pastor at Union Cathedral, the forum brought together clergy, businesses and community leaders to discuss violent crimes and its effects on the community.

Everyone gathered in the room can shoulder some of the blame for the issues facing the community, McCrae said.

“We must choose to be a relevant, consistent part of the solution,” he said.

People must reach out to the youth and show them they care about what is happening on the street, in their education and their needs, McCrae said.

“As a pastor I am not called to be police,” he said. “But I am called to be a traffic director. I call people to Christ.”

Clergy members can assist the city and law enforcement officials in connecting to the community, he said.

Youth must be taught that there are consequences to every choice and they must be better at making choices. They must be instructed to be leaders and not followers, and they must be aware and beware of different issues, McCrae said.

“The children of our community got our attention on Sunday,” Mayor John Fretti said.

Collectively the community must reach out to these youth and not set them aside as one would set them in front of the television, Fretti said.

If the community wants to gain their trust back, they have to do it right and they have to be committed, he said.

Valdosta Police Chief Frank Simons said that he believes the problems today stem from a lack of basic respect among one another.

Young people talk about beating someone up or shooting someone because they have been disrespected, he said.

“I think we have confused respect with fear,” Simons said. “If I fear you, I probably don’t respect you. If I respect you, there is no reason to fear me to you.”

As a Christian, Simons believes the community would do better to adhere more to the ideals laid out in the Ten Commandments.

“We’ve failed to provide for one another,” he said. “There’s nothing in there about loving your neighbor if he looks like you.”

The event that spurred the meeting, the Sunday shooting at Hudson Dockett, is not a housing authority issue, a white issue or a black issue, he said.

“It is the issue of people respecting people,” Simons said.

Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine said his door is always open to any child or person who wants to talk to him about an issue.

Dr. Terrell Andrews, a clinical counselor, stressed that the behaviors youth are exhibiting is learned from the people closest to them, family and peers.

Modifying that behavior takes more than a couple hours a week at an after-school program, Andrews said.

It takes those programs and a complete shift in the behaviors they are viewing, he said.

Rev. Floyd Rose, from Serenity, said he spent some time at Hudson Dockett last night after the candlelight vigil.

“Most of us don’t have a clue as to what is going on,” Rose said. “White folks, I have no reason to believe you are not sincere, but you cannot solve this problem. You don’t know how they feel.”

The problems are rooted in poverty and culture, Rose said.

To gain a better understanding of the issues the youth are facing, New Serenity Christian Church will hold a forum on Sunday at 7 p.m. to let the youth speak on the issues they are facing, he said.

Andre Newsome, who mentors at the Mildred Hunter Community Center, said he had some of his students witness the Sunday shooting, and one was even grazed by a bullet.

The goal of the program is to teach them to diffuse situations without violence, to walk away from bad influences and to plan for the future, he said.

A person can’t come into the community for six months and expect to change it, Newsome said. They have to be a person the youth can confide in, someone they can talk to and reach out to when they need help.

Pastor Martin Collins of Southland Church said the issues weren’t a white issue or a black issue, but a human problem.

“This doesn’t just happen in the black community,” Collins said. “The kids are getting high in Stone Creek, too. This is happening everywhere in the community.”

Youth need to learn to not only trust elders of the same race but those of different races as well, he said.

Cassandra Jordan, who has worked in the prison system, said that effective change must start within a community. People must be willing to stand up and promote change from the community outward for it to last, she said.

Bishop Henry R. Williams, pastor of Victory Temple Evangelistic Center, said the community must listen to the youth and those dealing with these issues every day to be able to effectively change.