HPCAV was honored to be selected to be in the FOX8 News community spotlight in December. It was a great opportunity for viewers to learn more about HPCAV and the work we do in High Point. Here’s a link to the video and story:
https://myfox8.com/spotlight/community-foundation/high-point-group-works-to-stop-violence-in-the-community/
In the Community Spotlight
December 22, 2023 by
Youth in Action
August 16, 2023 by
This summer, HPCAV was very fortunate to have Peak Adventure Ministries’ High Point area youth in our building. These middle and high school youth scraped and painted our big meeting room. And it is a really big room. They did great work and it was wonderful to have young people around. For several (maybe most) it was their first real experience with a paint brush. Extra thanks to George Steele, Jr. who shepherds this team. (top photo below, far left)
We look forward to more partnering with Peak Adventure Ministries as we collaborate to reach youth throughout High Point. The goal? Reduce violent crime committed by young people. It’s a great group with a great mission: PEAK Adventure Ministries
In Memory of Linda Faircloth
May 17, 2023 by
Supporters of HPCAV and Tiny Houses Community Development gathered Saturday morning, May 13, to dedicate a garden shed in memory of HPCAV’s much loved board member and active supporter, Linda Faircloth. The dedication was part of the celebration of the opening of this Tiny House community in High Point, designed to provide safe housing for some of our veterans and homeless neighbors.
Linda was a much-loved and respected realtor in High Point. She was a long time member of HPCAV, serving on our board and participating in call-ins, neighborhood responses and other programs. When Ed Kimsey started the Life Construction Program, Linda was one of the first clients to hire our team to do some work at her home.
Over 10 years later, it was a Life Construction Program team that built this garden shed in her honor, painting it in some of her favorite colors. We are grateful to Scott Jones, the Tiny Houses Executive Director, and the City of High Point for working with us to make this possible. And we are grateful to Linda’s family, husband John and daughters Tammy, Laura and Catherine, for sharing her with us for so many years.
The shed already houses garden tools and the beds are full of strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and squash, ready for the residents who live here and their neighbors.
Welcome Rhonda Wagner
March 19, 2023 by
Rhonda has joined HPCAV as our first Assistant Executive Director. She is responsible for helping us build capacity around employment. Rhonda has years of experience as a Work First Employment and Community Engagement Specialist in Davidson County. In that role, she also coordinated Davidson County’s Business Advisory Council. She volunteered with Project Safe Neighborhood and the Domestic Violence Intervention Program so she is well acquainted with the mission of HPCAV.
Rhonda will also be heavily involved in our work with other youth service providers as we move our focus into prevention and intervention in violence by youth ages 24 and under. The hope is to improve High Point’s capacity to engage and encourage all of our young people toward a life of purpose and non-violence.
Rhonda is married to Byron and they have an adult daughter, Kayla. They live in Lexington.
We’re excited to take another step forward in making High Point a safer place for everyone.
Welcome Robert Martin
January 10, 2023 by
We’re excited about the new year and our new Executive Director: Robert Martin. Robert is probably best known to his friends as a rabid Appalachian State fan (he’s a graduate). To HPCAV, he’s known as one of our founding members.
Robert was employed as a Community Corrections Officer (adult probation and parole) with the NC Department of Public Safety from 1989 to 2017. He began working in Guilford County. When High Point Regional Hospital (now Atrium Health Wake Forest) completed a needs assessment in the mid-1990’s, Robert joined the task force looking at and working to address violence. Officially representing the county’s Community Corrections office, Robert was a part of the creation of High Point Community Against Violence, Inc. and an active part of the implementation of focused deterrence here.
Robert spent the last nine years of his career in Davidson County and retired from NCDPS in 2017. He was hired as the Project Safe Neighborhoods Coordinator for Davidson County, doing essentially the same work for our neighboring county as he had done as a volunteer with HPCAV. He remained a member of the HPCAV Executive Board and continued to work with us.
When Jim Summey submitted his resignation, Robert was the natural and best choice to be our next Executive Director. He resigned from our Board in November, 2022 and officially began his new position on January 1, 2023. Robert has already laid the groundwork to build on what has been a great partnership
with our police department and our community. He is looking forward to moving us towards
more work with youth, our new focus area. He is a supporter of EKG2, a promising educational program on guns and gang violence for seventh graders, and hopes to see it implemented here.
Robert is as dedicated to his high school, High Point Andrews, as he is to App State. He has been an active HPAHS volunteer and supporter. He is a long time Lions Club member and an active part of the local Fraternal Order of Police. He participates in the High Point Senior Games and you can see him at HPU basketball games. He is truly dedicated to High Point and making it safer for everyone.
Join us in welcoming Robert to his new role with HPCAV!
Jim Summey Retires
December 30, 2022 by
Jim Summey retired on December 31, 2022 after 13 years as High Point Community Against Violence, Inc.’s Executive Director.
Since the early 2000’s, Jim worked tirelessly to reduce violence and improve life for the residents of High Point. He was a co-founder of West End Ministries, Inc. and Leslie’s House, both of which continue providing needed services to individuals and families. As a volunteer, he was willing to work side by side with the High Point Police Department and our very young organization to implement something new called focused deterrence. This strategy was used in the West End neighborhood to address the problem of open air drug sales. The effort was so successful it was repeated in other neighborhoods in town and then applied to other crime problems, such as robbery.
Jim was instrumental in that success and we hired him as our first Executive Director. In that role, Jim trained countless communities around our nation in what has been called the High Point Model of focused deterrence. He worked with federal, state and local law enforcement. He testified before Congress. He worked with researchers and reporters and students. Since 1998, the focused deterrence strategy has helped reduce High Point’s overall violent crime by 67%. Jim had a major role in the successful execution of this strategy in our city.
Locally, Jim led our organization through lots of new territory as we have grown in size and scope. Through stumbles and successes, the basis for all his work and ours has been the sign he kept on his desk that reads “Veritas“. He continues to pastor English Road Baptist Church, where you can hear him preach on any given Sunday morning.
In December, Jim was recognized with a Hometown Heroes Award from the NC Automobile Dealers Association, nominated by Tim Ilderton. It’s a fitting tribute for who he is and all that he has done.
While we’ll miss him at HPCAV, we’re excited about his plans to continue working for the good of all people in our city and county. He’s left HPCAV in good shape and in good hands. We’re grateful and look forward to building on that foundation of truth as we move into 2023.
Best wishes for many years of happiness and success in all you do, Jim!
Dedicated HPU Student Benefits HPCAV
April 20, 2022 by
Meet Elise Coby, a junior at High Point University (HPU), pictured here with Gretta Bush, our Board President and Jim Summey, our Executive Director. Her Persuasive Speaking class required her to give a “Speech of Advocacy”. Realizing domestic/partner violence and violence in general were issues of concern to her, Elise researched local organizations and chose HPCAV as the subject for her speech project. She excelled in her presentation and was awarded first place. She took it a step further and created a crowd funding campaign, raising $765 for our organization.
Elise, we are very grateful for your support and your advocacy for HPCAV on campus and beyond!
One Man’s Answer to “Why?”
January 24, 2022 by
High Point Community Against Violence has always focused on data – the answer to “who” is committing the violence in our city. Data has informed our strategic decision-making: which neighborhoods to target; which people to target. We have focused on the quantitative, not the qualitative. But thanks to William Hill and WFDD, we have the chance to hear one man’s answer to “why” someone commits violent acts.
Listen to it, read it or both.
Focused Deterrence Works
March 1, 2020 by
Indexed crime or crime per capita is shown in the chart below, beginning in 1992 and ending in 2019. We began using the Focused Deterrence model in 1997, working with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and the community. Since then, our violent crime has decreased by 58% while the city’s population continues to grow at 50%. Over 2000 people have been notified. Of those, four out of five people do not reoffend. It’s not the perfect answer for all violence, but it works.
Take a look!
March 29, 2019 by
HPCAV has been working to reduce violence in High Point for over 21 years. If you wonder whether our work makes a difference, hear what our clients have to say in our newest video.