REVITALIZATION COMMUNITY TURNS AWAY FROM DRUGS

Neighborhood sees bright future

FLORENCE - Tim Waters drives down a narrow street in a north Florence
neighborhood, where windows and doors of small abandoned homes have been
nailed shut with plywood and front porches lean as if they could give way at
any moment.

"This is like crack haven right here," Waters says of an area of the
neighborhood that has been plagued by drugs, homelessness and violence.

Just a couple blocks away, Waters and a few others have built new homes on a
former "crack street" and children are jumping rope, one sign that part of
the neighborhood has become safer.

Nearby is a hole-in-the-wall community center where all the improvement
started. The center, with an annual budget of $350,000 and six employees, is
part of the federal Weed and Seed program, designed to help city
neighborhoods address persistent drug-related crime.

From this center located in an old strip mall, 28 programs reach out to the
community teaching things such as HIV prevention and simple math for
children. Kids can come for after-school programs, learn to box or simply
enjoy a game of pool or foosball in a safe environment.

"People say there's no way in the world that all that's going on," Waters
said.

The area the center serves has about 9,000 residents, almost all of them
black. Waters, 33, said his job as director entails being a friend,
confidant, father-figure and counselor and is overwhelming at times.

Beyond working with kids in the academic programs, Waters and others hold
neighborhood meetings at the center, where folks are urged to talk about
potential drug activity or crime.

"Nobody wants to be a snitch, but that's the only way you're going to fix
the problem," Waters said.

Walker Solomon, director of the Florence County Social Services office, is
trying to get about 60 volunteers to participate in a program where members
from the community act as liaisons between the state agency and families who
may have potential cases of abuse and neglect.

The volunteers will be trained by DSS, and the program would include
agencies such as the Department of Mental Health or the Department of
Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.

"Generally, when the Department of Social Services goes to someone's home,
it's in regards to getting somebody for child support or responding to a
call of abuse-neglect," Solomon said. "I felt that if a neighbor or someone
in the community went to a family and approached them with offers of help or
assistance that it would be received a whole lot better than DSS."

The program is expected to start up in a couple of months.

"I don't like the word snitch," Solomon said. "What we're trying to do is
help people."

But some have reservations about the program.

Defense attorney Jack Swerling said he thinks people naturally look for
abuse and neglect.

"But to go ahead and have people trained by DSS, an agency, to spot those
things I think is inciting trouble, and I believe you'd start having a rash
of reports that are unfounded," Swerling said. "And that's what causes me
concern."

Solomon said program volunteers will have to know when to call police.
"Sometimes we're going to be wrong," he said. But he hopes mistakes will "be
few and far between."

While the Weed and Seed program gets a lot of credit for improving the
neighborhood, not everyone is thrilled with the program's cameras installed
outside the center.

"It's like Big Brother's watching, and people don't like that," Waters said.

But, for kids such as 10-year-old Demtric Russell, the center is more than
just a haven. "You learn more things than regular school," he said.

And for neighbors in this reinvigorated community, the shiny new homes along
the former crack street are priceless.

Annie Briggs, 50, smiles when she talks to Waters about the revitalized
neighborhood. "I know how it used to be," she said. "We've come a long
ways."