I would like to invite you to join my new initiative “Changing 1 Life at a Time.”

Experts say police reform has a different meaning in different neighbor- hoods. Transformation of police depart- ments, their roles and their relationships in our communities will require a culture

change, enhanced training and relation- ship building. Without these changes, inner-city community interaction with law enforcement and first responders will never change.

In 2020, the killing of Mr. George Floyd changed our country’s perspective on policing and the African American and Hispanic communities. It focused our attention on the disparities in policing in different neighborhoods. As a product of Houston’s inner-city, I began to reflect and study ways to help change the culture of inner-city policing by “Changing 1 Life at a Time”.

Former Houston’s Mayor and Police Chief Dr. Lee P. Brown wrote the book “Policing in the 21st Centu- ry” - Community Policing”. This book presents concrete steps to establish a clear path to build trust and form pos- itive relationships between police, first responders and our communities. We have finally acknowledged there is a problem, and I believe a good start to a lasting solution is to bring the impacted groups together.

The goal is to bring a racial and ethnically diverse group of police officers and first-responders to the inner-city to play basketball with chil- dren and youth from the surrounding neighborhood. The purpose is to allow the members of the community to in- teract with police and first responders in a comfortable and non-threatening environment so that new relationships can be formed that will lead to open and candid conversations in the future.

To accomplish this, we need your help and participation. On Satur- day, April 10, 2021, I will be hosting a one-day event, focusing on relationship building using the game of basketball. During the career fair opportunity, I would like to introduce the kids to our local universities, armed services and professional trades by exposing them to different career choices and much more.

The games will be played at four locations: Lilly Grove Baptist Church 7034 Tierwester, Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church 3015 North Macgregor, Harverstock Hills 5619 Aldine Bender and the Cuney Homes Apartments located at 3260 Truxillo. We are thankful for the event sponsors: HEB, La Maison Midtown, Houston Forward Times and River Oaks Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram and Houston Professional Firefighters Association.

We have also invited all local law enforcements police chiefs to par- ticipate Houston, HISD, Sheriff, HCC, Metro, Constables 3 and 7.

With your support, we can begin to break down communications barriers and highlight career opportu- nities that can help to change the future of our inner-city neighborhoods “One Life at a Time”.

Hope we can count on you! – Dwight A. Boykins