They want a Community Partnership with the empty churches in Wilmington, from Mon to Sat open those churches up for appropriate, safe socialization. (Computer cafes, dances). Give the Neighborhood Planning Councils that money was delivered to the City of over $200,0000 for each planning council. (What happened to that money), only one council person received it!

Community Policing, not Homeland Security Policing. Citizens do not trust the police in Wilmington! A Citizens Review Board is absolutely necessary.

Summer jobs for young people! Stop arresting the youth for pot! Stop the repression on the neighborhoods by Jump Out Squads, and some jerks calling for more police….what do they want a Police State.

Why doesnt the city do a contract with the Uof D, Wilm College, Del. State and Widener and get a group of sociology/human services professors to take a look. The Hope Commission is and always been the Hopeless Commssion. Look at who is on that Commission. If those people couldnt get something done (and they are the insiders) why does anyone think they will suddenly be capable of “thinking outside the box”. Citizens are disenfranchised, they are tired of the same ole promises and no actions. If you want to know what the people want, “ASK THEM”, not the insiders who don’t have a clue.

That is the long term and needs to be the goal to work towards, but you are still left with the now and that is what still seems to confound people (generously) or is of little concern to voters (not so generously) which is why leadership on this is slow in coming.

Cassandra, I agree with Jack. Education is the silver bullet and early education is the platinum bullet. It is the only thing that empowers the individual to effect his or her life for the rest of his or her life. Everything else that happens to us builds on that early education. All of our choices and all of our actions are molded by this. We are either equipped to deal with a bewildering and sometimes dangerous world or we fail. The failure that leads to jail time or, worse still, a bullet in the streets.

Rob Reiner heads up a group that is convinced that a child’s path is set by what happens to that child between birth and three years old. There was a popular book a few years back that said all your necessary life skills were learned in kindergarten.

Headstart, the Childrens’ Television Workshop (Sesame Street) and other programs have tried to address this over the years with varying degrees of success. Success seems to be related to funding and commitment by the government.

I was able to the meet and greet with a lot of people but I think the members would have liked to hear about technology to reduce gun violence, mandatory/minimum changes and health care.

This fall the event will be repeated, I look forward to appearing at that time.