Outreach effort aims to stem summer violence

The coalition, in a partnership with MBTA, announced yesterday the start of the second summer of “Season of Peace,’’ a grass-roots program aimed at reducing violence in the streets through community involvement.

“We want 7-year-olds to play in the park and not worry about being shot. We want kids to be able to enjoy their neighborhoods without their parents worrying their neighborhoods will become a hotbed of violence,’’ Brown said, surrounded by fellow TenPoint members and MBTA officials at Dudley Station.

The campaign, which launches today and runs until Sept. 21, aims to send a positive cultural message to children that will counter violence they see on TV and in video games and movies, Brown said.

Weather might have been a factor in the decline in June’s crime rate, he said, but “we must never underestimate the power of our young people to make the right decision not to shoot. We must never underestimate the power of the community to rise up.’’

Season of Peace hopes to give the community the resources to do just that.

Through neighborhood walks and cookouts, the coalition will involve residents in efforts to reduce crime and what Brown called “tragic collateral homicides,’’ or the killing of young, innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

The project will also include prayer meetings, an advertising campaign, and the making of a documentary covering Boston’s black history from the 1960s through the civil rights movement to the present.

The ads will be placed on MBTA buses, said Deputy Chief Joseph O’Connor of the Police Department.

“It will allow us to outreach to youth,’’ O’Connor said of MBTA’s partnership. “We believe we will be able to lower the violence.’’

The coalition began the program during the 2007 winter holiday season when crime and shooting rates were on the rise, Brown said. In 2006 and 2007, 75 people were killed on city streets each year, the highest number of homicides in Boston in 10 years, according to police figures.

Homicides in the city this year were down to 23 by May 31, from 26 at the same time last year. However, the number of shootings has risen to 110 by May 31, compared with 80 at the same time last year.

To Ezzard Turner, those are more than just numbers. His 15-year-old cousin, Soheil, was waiting for a bus to school in May, when a man shot him twice in the head and killed him. Soheil had no criminal record and no known gang affiliation.

“My job has been a good support system to me and my family,’’ said Turner, who is a street worker for the coalition. “I’m just trying to bring peace to the community.’’

The coalition’s summer program may just be a small step toward that goal, but it is a beginning, Brown said.

“We are not going to be able to stop the violence overnight, but we can reverse the trend and that is what we are doing,’’ he said.