Building community, one event at a time could be the motto of the “Coffee, Care and Creativity with Cops” program. On October 11, Peekskill residents and families enjoyed an evening at Bohlmann Tower’s community room where residents had the chance to meet the officers who serve them, learn about substance use services, and create art collages out of magazines. The event was hosted by the City of Peekskill Police Department in partnership with Sun River Health and the Peekskill Housing Authority.
Sgt. Khalia Carter told the Herald that the event allowed residents to see a more human side to police, while also learning about resources in the community and ways to stay safe.
“We’re a law enforcement agency primarily, so we want to stress the importance of safety, pedestrian safety, and just general safety and well-being in schools, lessons of bullying,” Carter said. “We run a DARE program. It’s very important to us. We have gang resistance education and training programs. We have something for every grade level. From little sprouts nursery school on up through high school graduation, we have some form of influence.”
Dawn Benson, the tenant commissioner at 807 Main St, said it was important to hold the coffee with cops event at Bohlmann Towers because the project deserve police too.
“This is the highlight of it all,” Benson said. “Just to see the kids and the babies enjoying themselves and we have a lot more (tenants not here). But bet you next time once they find out all of these people came, they’ll want to be here next time.”
Tiffany Blair, a tenant at the building, said that Benson has been a positive reinforcement for Blair and her kids.
“My kids love to do things like this,” Blair said. “We rub elbows with our neighbors, my kids get to get creative, we get to do something fun while we’re home, and we just get to do something productive… It’s important to teach them the environment that they live in and how beautiful it can be.”
The event was also attended by Peekskill residents who did not live in the building, including Tarsha Vethea. “I think it’s a great event for the kids and parents to socialize,” she said. “(And) a good time to meet everyone and participate in different activities, and find out different information, what’s going on in the community.”
Jaslyn Session, community outreach coordinator at Sun River Health, said she hoped to build relationships through the event and let the community know they are supported. Session works with the school district to coordinate care for students and their families, helping them with vaccines, physicals, community resources, and linkage to services for immigration and insurance enrollment.
“The police, they provide our safety on the streets,” Session said. “But we also provide safety in the care that we provide. And so having an individual that they can connect with, that they feel comfortable with to say ‘Hey, I have a problem. I need help. Can you help me?’ That’s everything to me.”
Sun River Health also provides Medication Assisted Treatment, a program that offers Narcan training, Narcan kits and fentanyl test strips, and promotes harm reduction, explained Laura Egan, who started off at the non-profit health center as a recovery coach for the program.
“Addiction is a disease. It’s something that can affect anyone,” Egan said. “It doesn’t discriminate against race, age, where you come from, you can be rich, you can be poor… I think events like this are really important. And you never know, there could be someone struggling with substance use, particularly opioid abuse use. And you could save a life by training them in Narcan, defeating stigmas, and using words that help people not feel ashamed or embarrassed.”
She added that there has been a lot of miscommunication and fear surrounding Bohlmann Towers. “Historically, this is not the most popular place in town,” Egan said. “So that’s also why I came because I want to show you don’t have to be afraid to come to lower income housing. There’s a lot of stigma here in itself and a lot of negative connotations that come along with public housing. But they’re people too, and they need services, they need help.”
Carlos Heras, a tenant who has only lived in the building for about six months, said events like the coffee with cops were useful in getting to make connections with people in their buildings. At one of his first community events at the building, he won a television.
Tenant Commissioner Benson said the event was one of several held at the community, with a previous Thanksgiving dinner being held in the room and food delivered for those who could not get downstairs.
Benson also collected over 3,000 toys for Christmas and had a teen artist in the building help craft a beautiful fireplace for the season. Blair, originally from Harlem before moving to Westchester, emphasized the importance of community. “The intimacy of being able to kind of be proactive and be a part of the simple things in your community is a gem that I didn’t have growing up,” Blair said. “I didn’t have the expendability of just being so close knit with my neighbors, doing things…. I know what it is to come from a big city and how important community is. It takes a village so it’s good to know who your village is… God forbid something happens, it’s good to be able to know that these are my children and I am a representation of who they are. You hear it’s a meeting with the police department, how could you not want to be a part of it?
