Hope Center, Peacemakers host community action meeting

ROANOKE, Va. –

Two community organizations came together Monday night for the first time to help improve northwest Roanoke.

The Hope Center and the Peacemakers hosted a peace and hope community action meeting.

Cameras were not allowed in the meeting.

Residents who attended were given three minutes to express their thoughts or concerns about issues in northwest Roanoke such as violence and crime which has been on the rise as well as economic development and bringing in more jobs to the area.

This marked the first time the Peacemakers and The Hope Center have come together publicly in the community.

"We want this to be the year of action, so we just don't want to keep talking about things. We just want to get together and put together a plan of action and move forward from this meeting," said Grover Price, with The Hope Center.

"They decided to show the community we can  unite and we can come together to help and to try to better our area," said Monique Minor Hunter, with The Peacemakers.

Police have said that the number of homicides in Roanoke went up in 2017. About half of the homicide cases were in northwest Roanoke.