'This has to stop': Group calls on Philly communities to stand together to prevent gun violence

PHILADELPHIA - Several groups throughout the city of Philadelphia are trying to make our streets a safer place, but they rarely work together.

Recently, one local non-profit is trying to change all that."We banded together. We're, you know, collaborating. We're saying in unison, saying this has to stop and not just in word," said Reuben James leader of the organization Frontline Dads. "Everyone out here is a symbol that they are active participants in preventing gun violence in some form."Frontline Dads providing all kinds of anti-violence initiatives, from violence intervention to parenting classes.However, now the organization is taking it a step further, owning that our communities, our city, needs all of us.

And while James doesn’t let police off the hook, he doesn’t view them as the biggest solution."This is about community has nothing to do with police.

Police going to do what they do… We need caring community members to stand together," James said.RELATED COVERAGE: 'We need more help': Philadelphia groups given nearly $1 million in grants in fight against gun violenceAs community activists, elected officials and candidates and concerned citizens gathered together inside the Frontline Dads headquarters, they started looking at some of the underlying causes of gun violence."If you do a map overlap of gun violence, poverty, crime, unemployment, addiction and homelessness, it would concentrate right here in North Philly, Kensington, Mantua West Philly," he said. "Some areas we can identify that have been historically neglected, and all that neglect adds up to what we see here."Identifying the problem was step one, then the focus shifted to what everyone is willing to do; understanding that people are afraid, but the.