WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — At Monday's call to action meeting addressing the past weekend’s homicides, Mayor LaRhonda Patrick asked the community for help.
“We have to be realistic. If it's our problem, we have to fix it together and that's what we are doing here today,” Patrick said.
Several community organizations said they want to do their part in addressing crime among teens. One of the victims in the latest homicide was just 14 years old.
Curtis Behavioral Health was the first group to speak up at the meeting offering services to support and make the community better.
Marion Curtis, who runs the clinic, knows what it's like to deal with mental health problems.
“I was troubled in my youth. My mother dealt with mental health issues to where we would be homeless at times. I was around gangs, violence,” he explained.
Curtis, who's now a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, says environments like that can affect a child.
“There’s a correlation between mental health issues and the youth justice system. Untreated mental health issues, whether it be through trauma, neglect, abandonment, depression, that can lead to ineffective conflict resolution that definitely can lead to shootings,” Curtis said.
He says Black communities have a stigma against getting mental health help.
“They feel as if they're less than or they have self-doubt, or that something is wrong with them if they even admit that they have a mental health disorder," Curtis said. "These are people who need help, but are scared to because they don’t want to be judged.”
He says if parents don’t have conversations about mental health, it can lead them to bottling emotions inside which can lead to fear, anger, anxiety and more.
However, he hopes this weekend's homicides can be a wake-up call.
“Someone lost their life. Senseless– young. Mental health and outreach will make a big improvement on that,” Curtis said. “The kids that come into my office, most of the time it’s a cry for help.”
Another group speaking up is the Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity.
“Particularly the Macon–Warner Robins chapter is here to serve the community,” chapter president Tony Hall said.
He says the death of 14-year-old TraQuavis Holloway who was shot and killed this weekend is shocking.
“We are hurt by that,” Hall said.
So, they want to do their part to help by mentoring the youth in the community.
“Bringing our young people into a mentoring program where they'll get the training and learn how to be leaders in society so they can give back,” Hall explained.
He says they already mentor 50- 70 young boys in middle to high school, targeting children between the ages of 11 to 18.
“We look at the statistics of our young, Black males in our criminal system and a lot of the times they’re without fathers. We have single mothers who are doing an excellent job, but they also need some leadership skills from a male-factor,” he said.
Hall says their group goes into the schools, reading to children and making their presence known in the community. He says they value integrity and giving back. Those are the same values they hope their youths take away with them.
“We do things such as game nights, just a social event. We go to the nursing home that we give back to. We go to churches, we also deal with the food bank, getting canned goods and things like that to give back,” he said.
Both Alpha Kappa Psi and Curtis Behavioral Health are organizations giving back to achieve a single goal.
“Three lives have been lost this year so far, and that’s one too many,” Curtis said.
In this landscape, they're stepping up to try and make a difference.
“We want to do our part so that doesn’t happen again in our communities,” Hall chimed in.
The 100 Black Men of Warner Robins is another group that offered their help. They just established their chapter last June.
They say they have new programs in the works, like a conflict resolution group in schools that helps kids talk through problems.