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Dozens of community members filled the Wallace Community College Selma gymnasium on Friday to take advantage of an opportunistic “Day of Action” event that was sponsored by a local TV Station just outside of Selma.

One of Montgomery’s local news stations known as “WSFA” kicked off the event through the dedicated effort of partnerships with local agencies and nonprofits within the Montgomery area, and the Selma area to provide resources for those in need within the community.

Lydia Chapman, who is director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence organization through The Black Belt Community Foundation in Selma, told WSFA’s correspondent Bethany Davis that an event such as this is crucial in a city like Selma and across the BlackBelt because poverty impacts at a different rate than many of their other metropolitan areas.

“So, today this event represents togetherness, coming together and the opportunistic effort of bringing resources from all around such as employment, education, health resources to help the community stay informed and let them know that there’s opportunities around the Black Belt that can help them locally right here at home,” said Denisha Jackson, who is the community organizer and Training manager at The Selma Center for Nonviolence.

There were about 70 vendors in attendance within the event to help properly kickoff the “day of opportunity” and help make it overall success.

“We have everyone from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles here, we have the Aubrey Larkin’s Lewis Brothers Funeral Home, The BlackBelt Foundation including the Dallas County Department of Human Resources (DHR) alongside many others such as The Family Guidance Center, Selma Air, Regions Bank including legal services that can help those in need.

At the event, Selma Times Journal Reporter Faith Callens spoke with one organization within the Selma Community known as Quiet Storm Outreach Group, Inc., that is located in Montgomery, Alabama alongside many others about their purpose behind attending the event and just how their organization can help those within community each and every day.

“With Quiet Storm Outreach Group, Inc., we are an outreach organization catered to the enhancement of the quality of life of those who deal with homelessness. “ What we do is go into the community, meet them where they are, go face to face with them and provide basic hygiene necessities including any resource that we have to connect them with,” said Alvin Rowell, CEO and Founder of Quiet Storm Outreach Group, Inc.

Rowell said those who are interested in their services can contact them at their email, quiet.serve@gmail.com and said that the number to call them at is 334-387-7640.

The next organization that was involved within the event that spoke to STJ was The Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, discussing their Vocational Rehabilitation Services.

“We’re an agency that can assist individuals with disabilities including helping within all aspects of life. So, we have independent living, transitional services that transfer high school students into college and then into the workforce,” said Jordan Miree, who is a Rehabilitation Counselor for the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation services. “It’s a great program for anybody who has a documented disability within the community and for the community of Selma, I encourage high school aged students that may have some type of disability that’s documented through IEP ( Individualized Education Program that provides specialized instruction and services for students with disabilities, or either a 504 plan, which provides accommodations to help students with disabilities access the general education curriculum to apply for Vocational Rehab Services.

Miree said those who are interested in getting assistance can come to their local office on 722-B Alabama Avenue, that’s located in Selma and said the number to contact their office for help is 334-877-2928.

Like the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, there were many local agencies that contributed to the event, providing information geared to start the conversation to help those need including The Selma Housing Authority’s Jobs Plus Program, members within the Foot Solders Park who were getting citizens registered to vote, The City Of Selma and their members recruiting applicants for jobs alongside members within legal and governmental services that provided information to better help residents understand their role within the community.

“We set up our table because we want to be a visible presence in the community and let people know that it’s not the function of the District Attorney’s Office to just send people to prison. We have the primary responsibility of prosecuting cases that law enforcement that has investigated and made, but our clients are the State of Alabama, so it’s really our goal to seek justice and to find truth,” said Robert Turner, who is the District Attorney for the Judicial Circuit for The State of Alabama. “ So, that’s just one of the things that we’ve as a staff to understand is that our primary purpose is to not just represent the victims, but we listen to them and we treat them as community.

“We understand that people have been affected by various things,” Turner said. But, even with that, we have to parse through their testimonies to find out whether it is truthful, and then once we determine that, then we have to try to make sure that justice is done and justice is found and the one thing we like people to understand from our table being here and our presence being in the public, is that we have an open-door policy and we are willing to help.”

Jackson of the Selma Center for Nonviolence organization told STJ that those who missed the event can follow up with her if or when they need assistance and she said she can be reached through emailed at Selmacntr.org. Lydia Chapman can also be of assistance to those in need, according to Jackson and said she can be reached at 334-526-4539.