HEALING AURORA: HOW TO HELP A COMMUNITY IN SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL DISTRESS

Healing Aurora

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

HOW TO HELP A COMMUNITY IN SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL DISTRESS

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know Aurora has been in the headlines lately, and not for a good reason. The tragic death of Elijah McClain passed its one-year anniversary in August, and the community is still reeling, trying to figure out how to move forward with a police force making headlines for being murderers. And, unless you’re seriously living under a rock, you know all about COVID-19 ripping through communities, destroying lives, medical resources, and the economy. Of course, the entire country is dealing with social upheaval, reevaluation of police forces, and a major economic downturn. But many communities, including Denver, have more resources to fall back on when things like this happen. Developing areas like Aurora don’t always have the means to make everything OK for their citizens, but based on what we learned about reform plans in the city, they are doing a damn good job of trying.

FOOD AND ECONOMIC SUPPORT During a recession, some of the first major issues to pop up are local businesses going under and lack of food and resources for the poorest members of the community. Aurora is actively combatting those two things with their small business recovery plan and local food pantry program. “Our small business recovery has come in the form of two separate grants programs,” explains Ward V Aurora City Council Member Alison Coombs. “One was business relief, so immediate cash for the businesses at the beginning of the pandemic. And then the recovery program, which is grants to businesses specifically for the purpose of helping them change their operations in light of the pandemic. It helps with cleaning and sanitizing, PPE, as well as updates to ventilation systems and increasing outdoor spaces.” While this funding, combined with help on the federal level, is something the community is extremely grateful for, Coombs makes no bones about the fact that what is really needed is more federal help, something that is scarce during the Trump administration. “I think businesses here are grateful for what we’ve done and the way that we've leveraged some of our federal dollars to support them, but I've heard a lot of concern about being able to survive the pandemic,” she says. “As a city, our resources only stretch so far, so we really do need federal support, particularly for smaller businesses that have ten or fewer employees that did not tend to get some federal funding. The federal programs haven’t done much to help them.” And, in some cases, Aurora has to go beyond business funding to help the most in need. For those who have lost shelter or income, the city’s pantry program is essential to meet basic needs. “We've heard from the community that food access has been an issue, so we have a weekly, mobile food pantry program,” Coombs adds. “We have a pick-up program, and then we’ve partnered with Stanley Marketplace to give out prepared meals.” In an effort to address increasing need for food, the city is banding together to come up with creative solutions. Still, there is another serious issue that threatens the city: the discord between police and citizens.

ADDRESSING LACK OF FAITH IN LAW ENFORCEMENT Aurora Chief of Police Vanessa Wilson has her dream job. She’s strived for the position within the force for a while now, but she couldn’t have taken on the job at a more difficult time. “Right now, obviously, we have trust issues with the community,” she says. “My goal is to give the community a voice again and be able to talk about the issues they see, and also utilize the community and help move things forward, make the change that we work for the community. We work with people. And it's not an us-versus-them mentality; it's got to be a two-way communication.”

As an out lesbian on the force, Wilson wants to foster inclusivity both within the team and with the community. But, she understands that the trust from the community will be hard to win and is willing to speak directly on what is being done to ensure that more innocent lives, especially Black lives, aren’t taken. That starts with policing that isn’t based on stereotyping. “We are going to change how we respond to suspicious person calls,” Wilson says. “This will give the officers discretion to look at what’s really going on with a call instead of just responding to all calls for service. For years and years, we just sent officers out on all calls, and we need to change that because, obviously, we know there's implicit bias throughout the community and throughout the world.” In the scenario Wilson is explaining, police in unmarked cars would simply drive by for suspicious person calls to see what’s going on. If they see a Black man walking in a hoodie or a group of Latinx teens walking and talking, they drive on. If they see a person trying door handles, accosting people on the street, or in any other way acting suspicious, they will call in backup to intervene.

Wilson also plans to back up the Colorado-wide bans on chokeholds and look into what, if any, drugs should be allowed to be carried by active-duty officers.

BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW It’s not yet clear how many businesses will survive the pandemic or when things will go back to “normal,” nor if Wilson will keep her promises to the force and the city. However, one thing is certain; there is talk of action to further support Aurora. “We have a pretty comprehensive recovery plan in terms of our own operations,” Coombs adds in reference to how Aurora can rebuild following the COVID financial impact. “We’re going to continue to roll out additional business support programs and offer any other economic relief that we can.” “We're doing the pop-up food drives across different sections of the community where the officers help distributing food, some protein or a couple of cartons of milk depending on the size of their family,” Wilsonsays, regarding the officers’ efforts to win community trust. “If they have babies, we get diapers. We’re really trying to work with the community, to say we’re here for you. We want to have interactions that humanize the badge and the uniform, so they can see we actually really do care about this community and want to be a part of it.”