He glows Iric Headley

Iric Headley is the Executive Director of the Fort Wayne UNITED Mayoral initiative, launched by Mayor Tom Henry. UNITED is committed to decreasing crime, increasing opportunity and improving the quality of life in specific areas of the community.

Hedley says his position puts him “in the driver’s seat of the initiative, which is aimed at combating the root causes of violence by engaging the young African American male population, enhancing opportunities and improving their quality of life.

“Unfortunately for that specific population, homicide is the leading cause of death in the 10 - 24 age range, and it appears to be a narrative that some of us have accepted as a societal norm,” he explained.

The Fort Wayne UNITED initiative engages in its important work in various ways.

“Our commitment leads us to proactively create opportunities by first learning from the population we strive to serve,” explained Headley. “While some of us have personal experiences others might not, but regardless of where we are on the spectrum of knowledge and understanding, there is so much more that we do not know.”

Fort Wayne UNITED has developed several programs and initiatives that engage the community from different perspectives. These efforts include the Ten Point Coalition, which puts courageous men and women on the streets of our community as front line staff.

“We also have a late-night basketball program that is facilitated by Amos Norman and his team at the Renaissance Point YMCA,” said Headley. “There are also our L.I.V.E. Sessions that give African American males and the leadership of the FWPD a safe and constructive environment to have healthy dialog that fosters relationships. We put these programs and efforts in place to listen and learn from our participants, which puts us in a position to serve them more effectively.”

Headley finds his work very rewarding as he helps serve his community.

“One of the highlights of my job is meeting so many great people who inject me with hope, encouragement and motivation to stay on the path,” he explained. “The smiling faces that stop and say ‘thanks for all you do, keep up the great work’, will always mean more to me than words can communicate; however, the biggest reward is seeing lives change for the better, seeing people take their first step into healing, and being a part of journeys that start when concrete hearts become sand that are ready to be molded into what God wants them to be.”

While Fort Wayne UNITED successfully helps large portions of the Fort Wayne communities it serves, Headley admits there is always the challenging reality that the organization can only do so much.

“Regardless of how much time and resources go into executing our mission, it sometimes stings and hurts when the truth bubbles up to the top,” he said. “But by accepting the truth that we can only do so much, we overcome the lie that we have to do everything.”

Headley likes to think of this Fort Wayne UNITED initiative as a small part of a complete breakfast, likened to breakfast cereal jingles.

“Put another way, we are incomplete without our community working in tandem with us to reduce gun violence, enhance opportunities, and make a better community for all of us,” he said. “The most important part of that complete breakfast, is the foundation that a strong family downloads into a developing child, that includes significance, love, acceptance, and belonging, which is the most critical component of their success. Together, we have the potential to eradicate violence, racism, and so many other issues that plague our neighbors, friends and family.” a

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