WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) — Just as a Southeast Washington community starts to recover from last week’s bloodshed, 9NEWS NOW has learned that one of the only organizations in the neighborhood that helps troubled youth is forced to close its doors.
Peaceoholics has been widely praised in the past for making peace between rival crews, but tonight, its days are numbered–a casualty of DC budget cuts.
Six days after the shooting rampage, the community is still seething. Three fights erupted in Southeast in three hours. A dozen police cruisers responded in less than a minute. Residents have had enough.
“We need more help,” says Martha Smith, a resident of Southeast. “They need more jobs out here, activities to stop this violence. It’s ridiculous. It’s terrible. It’s pathetic. I’m tired of it.”
Adds Southeast resident Mike Washington, “I’m fed up. I’m fed up. I’m fed up. I’m not gonna talk to nobody or tell anybody no more. I’m just not gonna do it because I value my life.”
In the midst of all the recent bloodshed, the group Peaceoholics says it has lost more than two million dollars in funding. It is closing its doors this week, losing its location in neutral territory between rivals.
“We can’t count the amount of retaliations, shootings, stabbings that we prevented just by bringing people to this mediation center and helping them work through their differences,” says Peaceoholics’ Jauhar Abraham.
In just the last three years, the group has helped more than 100 troubled boys and girls sent by the city.
“None of our children have been involved in a murder. Have been murdered or charged with being involved with a murder,” adds Abraham. “How do you not make sure that’s part of the budget with the crisis that we have?”
“I was shot at the age of 12,” Anwan Glover tells 9NEWS NOW. “All of my siblings are dead.”
His three brothers, gunned down. But Glover transformed a bleak future into a successful acting career, including a lead role in HBO’s “The Wire.” He’s also a legendary go-go musician, known as Big G. And now, he’s a regular Peaceoholics volunteer, working with at-risk youth.
“You have to work with them year-round to really find out what’s going on, because he might have a broken home. And you just can’t turn your back on him,” says Glover.
But the walls are now bare at the Peaceoholics office. Their accolades taken down. The memories packed up.
“These are like bricks of a Greek foundation,” says Abraham. “So we have to fight to keep this alive. We have to live, so we can fight another day. We will. We will.”
DC Councilmember Tommy Wells, whose committee decided against funding the Peaceoholics, told 9NEWS NOW in an email that he did not support the Mayor’s earmark for them in this year’s budget.
Wrote Wells, ‘I did not support just writing them a check with no competitive process.’
Who did win that bid? DC officials won’t say.
Written by Andrea McCarren
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com
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