At a meeting between myself, State Representative Bud Williams and Springfield City Councilor Justin Hurst, I raised the topic of gun violence that I had recently discussed with Charles Stokes, who has become a dominant voice in Springfield’s Black community. I suggested that it might be a good idea for the three leaders to combine in an effort to bring to fruition a program that Stokes has envisioned and has worked to develop on his own that may be the answer to curtailing the gun violence in Springfield, especially in the Mason Square and Forest Park communities. The three talked and recently, toured the Burr Street area of Mason Square (see above photo) and agreed to jointly begin in August the difficult tasks of mobilizing the resources and community support around Stoke’s vision which, as he conveyed to me, is fundamentally different from previous efforts primarily because it starts at the “street level” where the violence occurs and directly involves those most involved in it. We at Point of View look forward to following and documenting theirefforts.