PHOTO BY DONNA CAMPBELL Drake Allen speaks to a crowd Thursday during the first meeting of Reach 1 Save 1, a community organization founded by upcoming interim Brookhaven Police Chief Randy Belcher to provide safe activities and for the youth of Brookhaven and Lincoln County.

Trust may be the safety net a group of concerned citizens needs to save the youth of Brookhaven.

About 60 people — mostly pastors, business people, parents, law enforcement and government officials — met Thursday evening at the Brookhaven Building to brainstorm ideas for safe activities for area children and youth.

The event was hosted by upcoming interim Brookhaven Police Chief Randy Belcher, who is calling it the “Reach 1 Save 1” program.

Belcher and his wife have lived in the area for nearly 40 years and have four daughters and three grandchildren. He will begin as interim chief July 1 to serve until City aldermen appoint a chief to fill the now-appointed position, but he didn’t want to wait until then to get started creating this program.

Belcher hopes community members and churches will join in to create fun activities for kids from the idea process to the planning and then the funding and execution of it.

He has an idea to take groups of kids to see the Mississippi Mud Monsters baseball team at Trustmark Park in Pearl. He is raising $2,000 to stock the fish pond behind the Brookhaven Building for a kids’ fishing event. He’d like to host a movie night at Regal UA Westbrook in Brookhaven.

He wants committed volunteers who share his vision.

“You might say ‘OK, that’s not my responsibility,’ but we’ve all got to help these kids,” he said. “When the gangs come looking for Little Johnny, Little Johnny’s not there. He’s up watching the (Mississippi) Mud Monsters. They’re off doing something.”

Dennis Brewer, pastor at Pearlhaven Baptist Church, suggested a youth advisory council to talk to young people and get input from them on what is needed.

“We need to listen to what the kids have going on,” he said. “Why are they choosing what they’re choosing? Why are they going where they’re going? Why are they doing what they’re doing?”

Maxine Jones would like to see a mentor program established, such as the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program that operated in Brookhaven but was pulled by the state because of a lack of funding.

“We went in and talked to kids. We matched them with mentors,” she said.

Jones said she tracked the students as they aged through the program and monitored their progress. She said students’ self esteem improved and fewer discipline problems were reported.

She believes a mentor program is beneficial to youngsters because it allows them to build a rapport with an adult that could possibly last a lifetime.

“I can tell you, mentoring works,” she said. “If you want to make a difference, we’ve got to talk to our kids and they’ve got to be comfortable talking to us.”

Phillip Sterling, pastor at Grace Community Church, said he recently spoke with four young people who felt pressured to join a gang.

“It’s not that most of them want to be in a gang. It’s that they’re scared not to be in a gang. One wants to get out and the other three didn’t want to get in,” Sterling said.

He said it’s difficult for adults to earn trust because the young boys are scared.

“Trust has to be built,” he said. “Until we can establish some kind of communication with these children, we’re going to lose. They are afraid. They are scared.”

Several other ideas were mentioned during the 90-minute meeting.

Elementary school teacher Laura Ann Walker suggested local businesses and restaurants could create a report card reward program to offer treats for good grades and citizenship awards.

“It makes them think, ‘Someone notices me, that I’m working hard,’” she said.

Josh Wash with Mt. Moriah Baptist Church said his church partnered with James Kitchens, a member of First Baptist Brookhaven, to create an outreach program for the Cloverdale Housing Development, which is part of the Brookhaven Housing Authority. Wash and his group of volunteers host 3-on-3 basketball tournaments monthly. They grill food, play games with those who don’t play basketball, offer prizes and even bring an audience of people who hang out and cheer for the kids.

He said they usually spend a Saturday morning prior to the monthly tournament passing out flyers about it through the apartment complex.

“We’ve established a presence,” he said.

Belcher was encouraged by the responses and urges more citizens to get involved.