KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson has been covering public safety solutions in the Prospect Ave. corridor. She covers Kansas City, Missouri. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
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The Prospect Avenue corridor is at the center of a call for action by community organizations.
Eastside Community Action Network (CAN) Center, 3017 Prospect Ave., is hosting an effort that began Monday.
Community leaders are working to have a 48-hour call for sobriety.
Organizations will provide social services, mental health support and resources for substance abuse.
Those services will be offered at the Eastside Community Action Network around the clock to help those in need.
The community event ends at 8 a.m. Wednesday, June 24.
"Oftentimes, our response is we need to detain this person, but while that is a tool, we also have to help people," said Kansas City's 3rd District Councilwoman, Melissa Robinson. "My vision for Prospect is for it to be a thriving economic center with hundreds of jobs, where we have small businesses that can offer their services to the community."
KSHB 41 Kansas City Reporter Alyssa Jackson met Robert Washington, a former client of Neighbor2Neighbor.
Washington used the help offered by Neighbor2Neighbor to maintain his sobriety for 138 days.
"I was strung out on drugs, lost my kids," Washington said. "Before that, I was stealing out of the store [Sun Fresh Market]," Washington said. "I look at my community and it hurts me — so I don't want to see none of my people's go through what I went through."
Washington was at the Eastside CAN Center spreading the word about the nonprofit.
He said, "I have a lot of people come up to me and ask me how can they do it because they’ve seen me transform."
Along with a new grocery store, the city has worked on investments and policy changes to fight crime in the Prospect Avenue Corridor, which includes the Eastside CAN Center.
"If we can get 10 people off the street and referred to services, that's huge," said Cydney Williams, program manager for REACH, a pre-arrest diversion program along the Prospect Corridor. "We have to continue this — it’s not a 48-hour thing, a 24-hour thing...it’s a continued process to help folks in need."
Washington is proof that some success stories happen by walking through the right door.
"Break down the barriers that’s stopping you from who you want to be," he said. "Everybody needs to change. It’s just about if you’re asking for it."
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