A Day of Healing for Newark embraces victims of crime who are traumatized
Sharon Redding held it together until she reached the Newark police precinct.
Her 32-year-old son, Aaron Redding of Newark, had been shot, the victim of random gunfire, about 9:30 p.m. last Wednesday at Wolcott Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, near Route 78. He was fine after being treated at University Hospital and released. But by the time Sharon and her son reached the police station so he could give a statement, she was emotionally spent.
"I had a little panic attack,'' said Redding, a Newark resident. "I started shaking.''
The gravity of what happened was traumatizing, giving new meaning to a project in the South Ward that Sharon Redding is intimately involved with, one that helps people who have gone through similar trauma.
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Oct. 7 can't come fast enough. That's when the New Jersey Crime Survivors, a nonprofit organization that supports crime victims and their families, is sponsoring A Day of Healing -- Triumph Through Tragedy. The event is aimed at letting people who have been traumatized by violence know that they are not alone.
Sharon Redding, a South Ward resident in Newark, is intimately involved with New Jersey Crime Survivors, a nonprofit organization that supports crime victims and their families. She has been the inspiration for the organization to have a Day of Healing event to let people know who have been traumatized by violence that they are not alone. The event on Oct. 7 takes on a new meaning for Redding, whose 32-year-old son was shot from random gunfire recently. (Alexandra Pais | For NJ Advance Media)Alexandra Pais*
The five-hour event starts at 11 a.m. with a march from Chadwick and Hawthorne avenues to the Belmont Runyon School. There will be a healing circle with an African drum ceremony and panel discussions on helping people to understand trauma, how they can heal from it and how to provide sorely needed support to children who are victims.
"People walk around with all of this trauma and they are alone in it,'' said Elizabeth Ruebman, an organizer with New Jersey Crime Survivors.
Flyers are circulating through email and social media about the event and listing the community stakeholders: Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, Newark Community Street Team, My Brothers Keeper, FP Outcry for Youth and Safer Newark Council.
Redding's name is among those listed, because it belongs there. The South Ward has been her home for 60 years.
"She's kind of like the mother to the whole neighborhood,'' said Nate Burkard, NCST project administrator. "It doesn't matter how tough you are. You're going to straighten up when she walks by. She's a special women.''
Redding has been looking forward to this event, attending meetings and giving input toward a movement that had been underway for about a year.
"She gave us that extra inspiration to get it done quickly,'' said Ruebman.
This statewide campaign is to help crime victims, many of whom are people of color. Too often, Ruebman said, people of color in cities such as Newark are not seen as crime victims and do not receive assistance when violence strikes.
"There are all these people that are crime survivors and they're not getting any help or support from the systems that are supposed to support them,'' Ruebman said.
New Jersey has failed them, she said, by not using most of its federal allocation through the Victims of Crime Act. Of $59 million the state received in 2015, only $21 million reached community groups that deal with crime victims.
As Redding learned of the issue, she wanted to do something but didn't quite know how to go about it.
Then she found NCST, a legion of outreach workers who diffuse violence, which was holding meetings and gauging resident interest in improving the community.
Redding knew her community needed a break, a day to heal. She knew the family of the 11-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman, who were stabbed to death in a home on Hedden Terrace last year. In April, 16-year-old Malik Bullock was gunned down near Hawthorne Avenue School. Two months later, her nephew, Malcolm Gardner, was shot and killed on Hawthorne Avenue. On the same street last Saturday night, police found Farad Green, 39, fatally shot inside a retail store.
"As a community, sometimes we think that gunshots are just normal,'' she said. "But it's not. You have a neighborhood that's traumatized.''
Redding also has seen it in children during the 25 years she was a preschool teacher in Newark. When she held circle time, Redding said, a child talked about his father putting a gun to his mother's head. Another time, a child saw police come into the house because the family had guns.
"She embodies why we do this,'' Ruebman said. "She has been seeing trauma for decades.''
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Even though she wasn't aware of what the organizations were planning, "God had put something on my heart'' to do something in her neighborhood.
"It was kind of serendipitous,'' Burkard said.
Now Redding's son is a victim, shot less than 100 feet from the community building on Hawthorne Avenue where NCST held a meeting last Tuesday that Redding attended.
The bullet entered underneath his right breast and exited just above his chest. He didn't realize what happened until he had crossed the street toward a restaurant and felt his shirt wet with blood. He is still shaken by the incident.
Redding said her son wasn't yet ready to talk, but he plans on making remarks at the Day of Healing event. And despite her moment of trembling at the police station, she's coming around, grateful that her son is OK.
The day of healing "took on a different meaning for me,'' she said. "It takes a toll on you. It has taken its toll on me.''
On Oct. 7, Redding hopes to see crime victims and their families lean on and embrace each other. Not only is it a day to heal, she said, it's a day to remember those loved ones and move forward.
No one should carry this weight alone.
Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or
nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL