CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Central Virginia Violence Interrupters — formerly known at BUCK Squad — is looking to expand their presence which they feel will significantly reduce the gun violence in the entire area. Associate Executive Director Brian Page tells The Schilling Show on WINA right now they’re able to spend time in one spot at a time — such as they’re doing now in Greenstone after being at South 1st Street — when there are six other hotspots they would also like to be. He says they need both donations financially and volunteer-wise to be able to locate in these spots and assure a better future.

They’ve learned over the time they’ve been in existence, as well as organizations in other cities from which CVVI models what they do here, that they need to be in an area about 16 hours each day, rather than spending an hour or two in the different areas in order to be effective. Executive Director Herb Dickerson says it takes that time to figure out what’s going on in many instances and be available to act. Page says they believe with 10 years of programming with youth in these communities, “the tutoring, the boxing, the basketball, summer jobs, things that reach the youth, we’ll have a beautiful 10-year future. A lot of kids wouldn’t be doing this stuff, and we just believe that”.

CVVI Operations Director Annette Anthony said it’s going to take the entire community to help things get better. She recalled all the people who were like “parents” to her in her neighborhood as she grew up, and that even though kids in our neighborhood might not be our kids, they are indeed “our kids”. Chief Financial Officer Tommy Everette says they get about $200,000 annually from the city to operate, but they would like more. He says with the current $22-million of unspent surplus, there is more money the city might be able to contribute. Dickerson says they right now have one church that takes up a collection for CVVI, but they’d like to see more. They are also looking for more contributions from the community overall which would help them be able to keep people in the 6 or 7 city hotspots and make a real difference.
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