LUMBERTON – The N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program and the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission held a public discussion Monday night to address the ongoing issues of traffic safety, violent crime and public health in Robeson County.

One speaker referred to the setting of the Robeson County Community Safety Meeting as a “great grassroots program.”

Approximately 105 people attended the two-hour meeting at the Southeastern Agricultural Center to join in brainstorming sessions and provide feedback on potential solutions to enhance safety and security throughout the area.

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“Tonight is an opportunity for our collective voices to be heard,” said The Rev. Leslie Sessoms, a minister at Godwin Heights Baptist Church in Lumberton. “An opportunity to hear our stories, use our God-given ability to create. To create a new narrative for Robeson County. One where all our citizens can live, work and play, free of violence and fear.”

Besides Sessoms, key speakers included Deputy Robeson County Manager Shelton Hill, Colors of Life CEO Leon Burden, Lumberton safety advocate Dean Thomas and UNC Health Southeastern’s Dr. John Dorsch.

The brainstorm sessions were broken into three areas with meeting participants able to select the one they wanted to sit in on: violent crime, traffic crashes and public health.

During all three sessions, participants were asked the following questions:

– What do you see as a challenge?

– What’s working well?

– What resources are needed to get better? What is really needed?

It appeared that most of the attendees decided on the violent crime breakout group session, which featured lots of discussion from the audience.

For this violent crime session group, some of the challenges mentioned included drugs, repeat offenders, gangs and bullies, lack of youth programs, guns, breakdown of family, difficulties of parenting teens, a low resource school system, all types of mental health, an overburdened judicial system and more programs for the homeless.

Mark Ezzell, who is director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program, said in terms of traffic safety, one of the things being done is the work of the Vision Zero Task Force that meets monthly in Robeson County. This grassroots, countywide effort got underway in 2018 to help change the driving culture in the county and reduce highway deaths.

According to preliminary data from the state DOT, 66 people were killed in vehicle crashes in Robeson County last year.

Another initiative is the Robeson County Safety Action Plan, Ezzell said. With this, people are brought together from the N.C. Department of Transportation and, most importantly, he added, “You all, to talk about some of the things we discussed during our breakout session today.”

That meeting, he noted, is tentatively set for May 9.

“I think we heard a lot of good discussion going on here tonight and lots of ideas have been generated,” Sessoms said near the end of the program. “We want to think about where we go from here. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re just beginning these conversations. It’s so exciting to see all of you joining in tonight and willing to speak up.

“This is a tremendous start,” she said, “and it will take us all to continue to work together to make this dream come true. I believe it can.”