Save Our Streets to Hold ‘Week of Peace’

Save Our Streets (S.O.S.), a Crown Heights organization dedicated to ending gun violence, will hold their first “S.O.S. Week of Peace,” October 16-23. Local Businesses, houses of worship, community residents, local organizations and schools will gather from across Crown Heights (and Prospect Heights) to express a message of non-violence.

The main event of the week will be a Peace March on October 20, where members of the community will demand an end to neighborhood violence, supporting victims and their families, and celebrating the positive changes the community has made to reduce gun-violence. The group will be congregating on the north side of Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue at 6 p.m. To walk as a group, register at soscrownheights.org.

Religious leaders throughout Crown Heights will commence and close the S.O.S. Week of Peace with “Non-Violence Sundays” on October 16 and October 23 by dedicating their religious services to the message of non-violence. There will also be a screening of The Interrupters, the award-winning documentary about the Chicago Ceasefire anti-violence approach on which the S.O.S. program is based, on Friday, October 21 at 6:30 p.m. at PS 289 (900 St. Marks Avenue at Kingston).

S.O.S. has been working in the Crown Heights area to reduce gun violence since February. According to S.O.S., compared to last year’s statistics, shootings have been reduced by 70% in S.O.S.’s target area: from Kingston Avenue to Utica Avenue and from Eastern Parkway to Atlantic Avenue.

To volunteer at the event or for more information about S.O.S., their office can be reached at (718) 773-6886.