Euclid Hope Task Force, a community organization which hosts monthly Neighbor Nights where residents discuss the issue of gun violence in the community, was presented with the preliminary results of its “Neighbors in Action” listening sessions which it hosted in November over the course of three days and had 137 people participate. During those session participants were split into smaller groups that were asked questions such as “Have you heard something that stirred fresh thoughts or feelings?” with their responses being tape recorded and transcribed by researchers with Case Western Reserve University Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences Community Innovation Network. During the task force’s most recent meeting on Jan. 14,  the preliminary themes of many of the questions were presented by JP Graulty, program manager of the Community Innovation Network who said that although the data still hasn’t been fully crunched yet, some common themes have been found among those that participated in the sessions. “Breakdown of community bonds and accountability,” “empathy for victims and offenders,” “nostalgia about fist fights,” “gun access,” “shifting cultural and societal norms” and the lack of the “village” were among some of the responses given when participants were asked about what they think about gun violence in the community. Others brought up a shifting in cultural and societal norms a need for increased positive interactions among community members and resident and community buy-in as some possible solutions. Pam Turos, one of the founding members of Euclid Hope Task Force, said researchers went over 20 hours of interviews, and that the assistance provided by the university was helpful in completing goals, years in the making. “We are really, really, grateful for the hard work of the team at CWRU, for all the students that came to our listening sessions and took such careful time to collect this information for us… and we feel hopeful,” Turos said during an interview before a recent meeting. “We feel that the things we have been working on for the past two years are within sight now, the next two phases of this work, getting some funding and finding someone to work full time on the work, it feels very much like it’s all coming to fruition.” She said that part of holding the meetings in the first place was to increase connectivity in the neighborhood, with the hope that individuals find others to help build more safety networks within the community beyond their organization, which was a need reflected in the preliminary study results as well. “Even with the members who we have met through Neighbor Night, (they) have started to step up and take leadership roles, so that it’s more representative of the community and it’s not just the original three that started it,” Turos said. “That’s our real goal is that in this next year, (to) have more resident representation and move forward, and all of those things are in sight now – it feels like it’s been almost like you go slow, to go fast.” She said that many members of the administration, the police chief, the mayor, and a council member were on a virtual call earlier in the week to go over the results. She added that the group is planning a large public event in February that would, alongside covering results of the study, have vendors on site for support counseling and other social services which already exist in the community. “They will get feedback from city leadership and residents on what has been found in the research and then we will have a kind of day of reflection and questions on what were the results of the survey and what are the possible plans from the survey,” Turos said. “And then they will give us back a plan which will have program and system recommendations for what we should invest in time and treasure in the city to reach those goals. “And the biggest goal that’s coming to the surface, honestly at this point, is that people feel safe in a community when they know each other, and for a number of reasons, our residents don’t all know each other anymore so our biggest goal as a task force is to build up the neighborhood network.” Announcements on when and where monthly meetings are, along with study results and other information can be found at www.hopetaskforce.org.