Before U.S. Representative Sam Farr (17th District) joined the Four Communities For Peace (FCFP) collaborative group, mayors, city managers and police department personnel from all four South County cities came together to officially sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to work proactively to reduce violence.

FCFP came about through two events that happened close together.

The first one was the introduction of Rev. Edgar Mohorko to King City. Mohorko is from Social Outreach Services based in Oxnard, where he had peacemaking and violence intervention successes in the city of Oxnard.

Mohorko brought his method to King City in December of 2009. Later, Rev. Andrew Salinas invited Mohorko to Greenfield, where he was hired to create the same intervention program in that city.

The second event that sealed the collaboration between the four cities was the award of the California Gang Reduction Intervention Program (CalGRIP) grant this year that had been spearheaded by the City of Gonzales for use in all four cities.

FCFP contracted Mohorko’s consulting business, Social Outreach Services, to develop and chair a clergy council, develop and train community members to provide peacekeeping services and develop and implement youth outreach and gang intervention programs.

“We want to do more prevention and put a plan in place; pump people up and motivate them,” Mohorko told the mayors and city managers during the first FCFP meeting. “There is a common thread in all communities, but the strategy is different in each town.”

The goal is to get a chairperson from each community. Mohorko said and so far there is one chair from three communities, with a leader needed from Gonzales.

Rev. Andrew Salinas has taken the job of Chairman of FCFP Clergy Council, Mohorko announced.

“To get things done, it takes behind the scenes work,” he added.

According to Mohorko, there is a dangerous gap for children between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. when school is out and before parents come home from work. There is no parental supervision and when children are left alone with nothing to do, they are ripe to get into trouble.

“Cities realize the communities must be engaged, mobilized and brought into being part of the solution by using all methods including, community policing, education and training,” stated the MOA, and backed up by Mohorko’s words to the mayors and city managers.

For the complete article see the 07-14-2010 issue.

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