Mansfield launches Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice local chapter

MANSFIELD — It didn’t long for Nyshia Brooks to know the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice organization was needed in Mansfield.

The 38-year-old graduate of Mansfield Senior, coordinator of services for the local Minority Health and Wellness Project, met late last year with representatives from the 6-year-old national organization.

“I knew instantly there was a need,” Brooks said on Saturday afternoon during the launch of the Mansfield chapter, the third CSSJ chapter in Ohio after Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The celebration, including speakers, videos, community art, healing organization vendor tables, and food and drink, was at the North Lake Park pavilion.

“(They) were able to explain what they do and we instantly saw a match and a fit because it blends in exactly with our vision overall for health and wellness for Mansfield and Richland County,” Brooks said.

The drive for a CSSJ chapter in Mansfield began in January.  The national organization, which began with about a dozen people in California, now has about 30,000 members.

Brooks, a lifelong Mansfield resident, said the new, local chapter will meet regularly.

“Plus, we will have a lot of collaborations with other local community healing partners to help bring survivors together, connect in different avenues and ways, and ultimately to really strengthen their voice and advocate on a state level for improved healing services,” Brooks said.

Jerry Pena, CSSJ midwest regional manager based in Cleveland, was in attendance Saturday to help launch the new chapter. He said that two of every three crime victims across the nation receive no assistance.

“We are letting Mansfield know we’re here, we’re launching this chapter, we’re looking to speak and to engage survivors of crime and to advocate for better policies in Ohio,” Pena said. 

Pena said a key to CSSJ and its umbrella organization, the Alliance for Safety and Justice, is establishing crime-victim trauma treatment centers in cities that are “one-stop shops” for mental health counseling, counseling services, jobs, education and more.

“There are a disproportionate number of communities of color that don’t receive the same amount of trauma that other communities do,” he said. “We want to work with the legislature on how we can bring more of these trauma services to these impoverished communities.”

Pena, who said there are now eight such crime-victim “trauma centers” in Ohio, said one of the group’s goals is to reduce the number of state prison inmates.

“Many are in the system because they have mental health needs or drug rehabilitation, not because of violent crimes. We want to reduce that number,” he said, adding CSSJ supports (and helped to write) Ohio Senate Bill 3, which would reduce low-level felony drug possession charges to unclassified misdemeanors.

“That would save the state millions of dollars and we want to advocate to bring that money back into communities that really need them for trauma services,” Pena said.

Brooks said Mansfield, with the Mansfield Correctional Institution and the Richland Correctional Institution, is in a unique position.

“Mansfield is a prison city, inside of a prison county, in a prison state. We are in a unique area,” she said. “A lot of people are victims of crime here and they don’t even realize it.

“We are not necessarily against prisons. We just think more about balance and there is a bit of an imbalance,” Brooks said.

One of the state CSSJ goals is to return to Columbus in March 2020 for another “Survivors Speak,” attended by more than 300 in 2019. Brooks said her goal is for 50 to 100 Mansfield-area residents to join the group in a few months.

This is a personal issue for Brooks, who said she is also a crime victim.

“You want to help, help, help other people. It’s easy to lose sight that you got into this business because you really started off as a survivor of some sort.

“What keeps me going is this group wants to find ways to make someone’s situation better. This allows me to focus on my own healing, as well,” Brooks said.