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When he and many of his friends became their own best customers, Earielo said, a vicious cycle took hold, sending the old posse in and out of prison. Lately, a few of the faces that remain from those early days have been turning up at Earielo’s place of work: Everyday Miracles Peer Recovery Support Center on Pleasant Street. “I have an obligation to my community,” he said. “I have friends that were in the same gang who are now coming to me, interested in changing their lives around because they see all the positive stuff that I’m doing. That’s how we defeat the stigma of Kilby Street. That’s how we are going to change people’s perceptions. It’s not how they see Kilby Street. It’s how they see us doing the opposite of what they know of us doing.” Earielo has a debt to pay and he insists Kilby Street is destined to carry a brand new connotation for the next generation if he has anything to say about it.
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tigma can be difficult to quantify, but gun violence is not. As the second largest city in New England, Worcester’s crime rate is nothing short of remarkable. According to the Worcester Police Department, there wasn’t a single gun-related homicide in 2017, nor were there any gangrelated murders. Three years earlier, in 2014, the WPD reported 38 shooting incidents in the city of Worcester. In February that same year, the Worcester Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative released a document titled “Worcester Youth Violence Prevention & Reduction Strategic Plan: Needs and Resource Analysis.” The report acknowledged a youth and gang violence problem in the city and examined how systems had previously failed in preventing youth violence among proven-risk young men.
Steve Teasdale, executive director of the Main South Community Development Center, one of the driving forces behind the physical redevelopment of the Kilby Street neighborhood.
ELIZABETH BROOKS
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
M A R C H 8 - 14, 2018