GREENSBORO, N.C. — "It takes a village."
That's the phrase a Greensboro organization is honoring by standing up to gun violence.
City Help of the Triad is calling on public agencies, non-profits and church leaders to come up with strategies.
They're hosting a meeting Tuesday at Bethany Fellowship Church.
Ernestine Surgeon knows first-hand what crime is like.
She's lived in Claremont Courts in East Greensboro since 2006 and says she's noticed a rise in shootings.
Surgeon said the people behind the guns are getting younger and younger. She told News 2 she plans to go to the meeting, hoping city leaders will come up with more after-school programs to keep young people busy.
"We do not have enough, centers, clubs events. We don't have enough of anything to help the children because so many of our programs are no longer in existence. I grew up with tons of options for the summer, after school, fall, anytime we wanted community centers were always open to us," said Surgeon.
This is the kind of concern City Help of the Triad wants people to bring up to leaders Tuesday.
Reginald Holiday says he'd also like to see more mentors in schools to teach how to resolve conflict and deal with anger.
"14 and 15-year-olds somehow think the way to resolve a conflict is to pick up a gun and resort to violence," said Holiday. "Hopefully at the end of the meeting we have individuals that will see, 'This is how I think my nonprofit can contribute to a comprehensive strategy'. Whether that's policy, prevention we hope to have some city governmental officials here, law-enforcement individuals."
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Bethany Fellowship Church.
Anyone is encouraged to attend.