What we’ve learned about mental health and violence

When I volunteered to start a think tank to address violence in Cedar Rapids, I knew very little about crime, education, race relations or any of the social services in Linn County. I know now that without a change in the way we allocate community resources, we risk becoming yet another American city torn apart by the pressures of impoverished minds, impoverished hearts and impoverished souls.

I have discovered that no one person in Linn County is waking up every morning and worrying about, thinking about, planning for, advocating for, coordinating nor working toward a net reduction in all of the many factors that lead to violence among our young people. If nothing changes, there is no one to be held to account.

We as a community have to prioritize our efforts. Time is more valuable than money.

Fifteen years ago alarms sounded in Ferguson, Missouri. Last summer, those tensions around violence, race relations and deep-seated differences erupted. The good citizens of Ferguson will forever be affected.

Alarms have been going off for a while in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids Community School District third-grade reading proficiency scores have dropped. There has been an increase in shots fired in our city limits. Mental health services are straining under limited budgets. There is worsening racial disparity in education, income and housing as people escaping violence in metro cities move here in the hopes of building a better life.

It can seem impossible - given the national climate of vitriolic discourse around violence, mental health, education, community law enforcement, the Second Amendment and poverty - to solve any of these problems in Cedar Rapids. But we must, if we are to stop the violence that is affecting our community.

Violence suppression, interdiction, mitigation and prevention each are different and require different tactics and strategies.

Law Enforcement can suppress and disrupt violence, arresting offenders to keep our community safer in the short term. We are fortunate to have outstanding law enforcement officials and officers on watch. These professionals will buy us time to figure out a strategy going forward.

Violence prevention primarily falls on 'us” - the community. Family health, mental health, spiritual health, physical health, education, economics and community ties are our collective responsibility.

Violence mitigation is the hard one. It is a long-term investment; it will take years before what we do today will have any meaningful effect.

START AT BIRTH

In a family with two college-educated parents, a child from birth to age five will hear roughly 45 million words.

In that same time frame, a child born to two high school educated parents will hear 27 million words.

In a single parent family, struggling to stay afloat, that same child might be exposed to only 18 million words.

Brain development is critical in the first five years of life; third-grade reading proficiency is the greatest predictor of whether a child will grow up to be a productive member of society, or a drain on society.

As Cedar Rapids School Superintendent, Brad Buck will have the more impact on economic development and violence mitigation than any other single person in the city. He has a passion for fighting poverty of the mind, but changing public education is an uphill battle in every direction. We need people who are committed to teach, to mentor, to guide and direct the education of our children.

INVOLVE FAMILIES

I attended a Wellington Heights neighborhood event after the murder of Aaron Richardson. I introduced myself to a pastor from the neighborhood, and asked him: 'We all know where violence ends, but where does violence begin?”

'Jay,” he told me, 'I'll tell you exactly where violence begins:

'You take a young person age 5 wanting nothing more than a relationship with his father, who walks in and out of his life. By age 7, without a father in the home and with a mom who is struggling - working two jobs and trying to find love, often in all the wrong places - that young man now is abandoned again.

'By the age of 11, that young man has found a way to cope and found a way to be loved in all the wrong ways. And by age 15 that 5-year-old boy, who just wanted to be loved by his father, is a dry tinder box waiting to explode.”

Every year, an estimated 1,500 new residents come to us from cities that already have lost the battle to mitigate violence. If over the next 10 years we fail to invest in violence mitigation, we will miss any opportunity to change the arc of inevitability of a tale of a city no one wants.

I believe the rising tide of violence and racial inequities is the single greatest threat our community has faced - even greater than the Flood of 2008.

If there ever was a time to come together as a community, just as we did in 2008, that time is now. To find out how you can help, visit our Facebook page: facebook.com/wethinkcr

' Jay A. Johnson is founder of the think tank and CEO of Summit Technology Group LLC. Comments: Jay.Johnson@Summittg.com