Norfolk nonprofit fights crime with help from Newark Street Team

The City of Norfolk receives support from the Newark Community Street Team, a New Jersey-based crime prevention organization.

The Newark Community Street Team provides violence intervention training to local groups already operating in the field.

“The Newark Street Team has trained our street policing here on procedures and best practices,” said Norfolk City Councilor John Paige. “We need to be on the ground in every part of the city.”

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Norfolk resident Kya Barnes says something needs to be done after she said Norfolk's Young Terrace neighborhood is plagued by crime.

“There was a lot of violence. Children were afraid to walk to school or get on the bus because there were shootings,” Barnes said.

In a mass shooting in Young Terrace in 2021, five women were shot and three killed.

Barnes says she and the children in the area have felt safer since Community 1st came to the area four months ago.

“They make sure the kids get on the bus safely because there has been a lot of gun violence,” Barnes said.

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Community 1st is one of the organizations receiving violence intervention training from the Newark Community Street Team.

“They're providing us with training to help us build infrastructure. They've taught us about public safety and explained to us that we're just as important to another branch of city government,” said Clay Marquez, founder of Community 1st.

Marquez says they are in the Norfolk neighborhoods six days a week, offering clothes and shoes to the children.

“We come here as a unit to make sure our community is safe. We have a contract with the city. But we were here before the contract,” Marquez said.

Barnes and other Norfolk parents have noticed the change.

“Since they’ve been here, there hasn’t been as much gun violence,” Barnes said.