MADISON, Wis. — After a rash of gun violence in Madison over the weekend, and over the past year, organizations are working to reach out to their communities and break the cycle of violence.
Clyde Mayberry is the founder of one of those organizations, The House Inc. It’s an urban arts initiative aimed at serving Black and Brown youth in the Madison area.
Mayberry said the organization was inspired by his love of dancing as a kid.
“I just always remembered when I was younger, what kept me off the streets and what just kept me focused,” Mayberry said. “It was always dance.”
Mayberry said when he heard about the violence at Harmony Apartments last year, he knew he had to help.
The complex on Madison’s East Side saw two fatal shootings in the span of a few months.
“It's important that we go into this project unlike everyone else, because we have to make sure what we do sticks,” Mayberry said.
Mayberry got involved with United Way of Dane County’s micro-investment grant program. The organization is investing $25,000 into outreach initiatives at the Harmony Apartments.
The House Inc. was one of the recipients.
“I’ll be teaching a dance program that will come with health and wellness initiatives,” Mayberry said. “It will come with training in ballet, hip hop and majorette.”
Even with support, it’s a daunting problem to solve, especially for organizations such as Focused Interruption, which provides counseling and support to people impacted by gun violence.
Founder Anthony Cooper said reaching out to youth is a good start to solving the problem at hand.
“It doesn't just start and end with just the kids,” Cooper said. “We have to be able to continue to really wrap our arms around the whole family as much as possible. There’s not a cookie cutter way of approaching that.”
Cooper said it all comes down to making everyone feel like they’re an integral part of the community, and that no one feels alone.
“We're a part of your community,” he said. “We’re a part of what it is that you want for your life. And whatever we can do to be able to assist that, that's what we that we would do. But then also, we could not do this without your help.”
Mayberry said he’s happy to use his work to help better a community in pain. He said he hopes it’s not only beneficial to the Harmony Apartments, but the larger community.
“We have to feel better about being in our community,” Mayberry said. “We have to feel safe in our community. So getting out there, getting in that fight, and hopefully three, five years from now, we could read the same data and say, ‘Hey, we brought that down a little bit’.”