Great Field Trip, Y'all

a) Before, I had separated people with mental illnesses from myself so much that they were almost de humanized. Now, I see that most of the reasons people find themselves in criminal situations comes from their upbringing and environment as a child. 

b) I really liked the BRAVE representative. I think a lot of what he said was very interesting and made sense though I did not agree with the “faith” foundation. 

c) I think the partnership is imperative to fixing our crime problems. I think the “faith” part of brave goes beyond the rights of the constitution when combined with public efforts. 

d) You see how many people care about our community and how they all have ideas on how to fix our problems. There is also an interesting relationship between those who we have given our power to be our “voice” and the actual people themselves. 

Public Meeting Post

1.       How did the public meeting on Violence and Mental Health change your ideas on violence, murder, and its causes? In other words, what were your old ideas, and what did you learn that changed or added to your earlier ideas.

a.       I always thought that mental health caused people to commit crimes, but I never realized just how serious and frequent mental health is in people. Some of the statistics are just mind blowing when you get to thinking about them.

2.       Which speaker impressed you the most and why?

a.       The speaker that impressed me the most would probably be Mr. Tweety. I thought that his stance on mental health was very interesting. Another thing that I enjoyed about him was his talk about BRAVE. I liked his ideas on that they are going to focus on one of the worse parts of the city and start fixing that and then expand to the entire city. I think that this idea is good because I think that if you were to try and start BRAVE all over the city at first its impact wouldn’t be as powerful/successful.

3.       What do you think about the BRAVE method of fighting crime that we’ve begin in Baton Rouge (a partnership of community groups, social services and law enforcement working together in a target area of concentrated crime).

a.       Like is stated in question 2 I think that it is a good idea. I like mindset that they took when approaching the situation.

4.       What is the educational value of attending a meeting in this way –not to watch a documentary or a news story but to actually be there? What insights and knowledge can you can from directly experiencing such an event? What is the value in participating –taking notes, formulating questions, discussing issues on the way back, etc.

a.       This entire experience was extremely valuable. Since we attended the meeting we gained valuable insight that might not have been included in a documentary or on T.V. You can see people’s facial expressions and reactions better when you are actually at an event. Especially when you were as close as we were. When you take notes you can remember some of the important information that is stated at the meeting and by formulating questions it causes you to think on important issues at hand. 

Violence and Mental Health Public Meeting- Kayeci

a)    By attending this meeting and listening to what the speakers said, I don’t think my ideas changed much because I agree with their ideas. I think that mental illnesses should be recognized and addressed at an early age so that it can’t possibly lead to these acts of violence that have occurred in the past few months. However, I believe that the public is so quick to assume that the mass killings are associated with mental illness and sometimes it may or may not be. It is just an easy label.

b)    The speaker that impressed me the most was Tweety Hebert. He impressed me because he talked about the BRAVE project, which is a new project that seems to have potential.  

c)    I think the BRAVE method is a great idea if it works. I think that if it does work to eliminate crime in the area where it occurs the most, zip code 70805, it might lead to eliminating most crime in the city.

d) The educational value of attending a meeting in this way is better than just watching or reading about it. By actually attending it you are able to gain insight from others interactions. It is easier to learn and obtain information when you pick it up from others ideas. Sometimes, listening to someone can also change your opinion and widen your perspective on the subject

Violence and Mental Health Public Meeting: Maddie

1a.) Over the course of the meeting, I understood that to truly combat violent crime and identify mental illness is to start by focusing on future generations-by improving communities and education about violence from a young age.  Whenever I thought about solutions before, I didn't really take into account  the importance of today's youth in moving forward with our current issues.

1b.) I enjoyed listening to Mr. Tweety Hebert speak about the BRAVE program.  I was very interested  to hear that local groups, law enforcement, and social services could come together in such a great way.  He inspired me by saying that no matter your social class or geographic location, we are all impacted by crime in our community;  Therefore, it needs to be stopped.

1c.)I had never heard about BRAVE before, so I was impressed that the group had successfully made a coalition of different areas of our community to combat our crime.  It was evident that the group had already accomplished so much by working together; I look forward to see what the BRAVE program will do in the future.

1d.) Not only was the meeting informative about the problems we face in our community and the possible solutions to those problems, but the public meeting taught me about collaborating in a professional way.  The environment of the Roots of Violent Crime in Our Community assembly was extremely respective all who spoke and attentive in listening to what others had to say.  I am impressed by the efforts shown to improve the capital area and encouragement of the people's opinions and concerns on the matter.