'With or without you': Community leaders take on Columbus violence with engagement, mediation
In this world, Ephraim Laidley Jr. said, there are three kinds of community leaders: "nurses, doctors and brain surgeons."
According to Laidley, "nurses and doctors" share a general ability to use the resources at their disposal to make an impact in the city's underserved areas. But to confront issues such as gang and gun violence in Columbus, "brain surgeons" are needed to directly engage with local influencers to salvage neighborhoods.
"We've been paying and asking generalists to do a surgeon's job," Laidley, 35, said of Columbus city officials. "That's wrong, and it's costing us (Black residents) lives."
Laidley, who works as the vice president of operations technology at JPMorgan Chase at Easton by day, leads a number of community initiatives through his nonprofit group, Elements of Change. The organization aims to create safe spaces in inner-city neighborhoods through mediation, engagement and alternative pathways.
By restoring vacant houses, funding a small boxing gym on the Near East Side and other programs, Laidley has been a change-maker in city neighborhoods hampered by poor conditions and funding disparities that have only worsened with the coronavirus pandemic. The Bexley resident said there are plenty of ways to fix these broken neighborhoods — starting with putting the right people in the right places.
Laidley said his business partner, Sean Stevenson, is a "brain surgeon." The 51-year-old Olde Towne East resident is connected with inner-city leaders and is dedicated to stopping gang and gun violence.
Since meeting at a community event in 2016, the two men have collaborated on several intervention-centered programs, including Stevenson's own brainchild, End the Violence, or ETV, which focuses on de-escalation of crime in the city.
Both men recognized their shared passion for community service despite their different backgrounds and life experiences, with Stevenson becoming a de facto community intervention specialist after serving 20 years in federal prison.
“We have the same goal and same spirit, and we’re two different sides of the same coin that normally don’t get together," Laidley said.
Dedicated to helping others change lives
As a child, Stevenson shuffled through the foster care system. After suffering abuse from his foster family, he became homeless at age 13 and turned to the streets for solace.
By 14, he entered the drug trade. Soon after, he captured the attention of authorities, who charged him with drug distribution. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years.
After his release in 2009, Stevenson used the principles he learned in prison to connect with people of different backgrounds and quickly became a community leader, starting the ETV initiative and pledging to make real social change.
In 2017, Stevenson hosted the city's first National Gang Summit, followed by a gun violence-free week during a record-setting year for homicides. He's also been a big proponent of helping people, like himself, who struggle with dyslexia.
Stevenson worked with educators and state legislators in 2011 to help push for passage of Ohio Dyslexia laws, which included placing the International Dyslexia Association's definition of dyslexia into the Ohio Revised Code and forming a program to support at-risk students. The legislation was signed into law by former Gov. John Kasich.
Along with taking on intervention and service opportunities, Laidley and Stevenson have employed dozens of residents with criminal records or past alcohol or drug addictions to rehabilitate houses.
The program has garnered attention from Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, Columbus police Zone Section Chief Steve Dunbar and other city officials. For $10 an hour, workers are learning practical skills and, more than anything, helping to build up their community.
Two years ago, property developer Marcus "Cornbread" Allen made the commitment to change his life with the help of Laidley and Stevenson, who supported his transition to sobriety after a long battle with drug addiction.
Allen formed a contracting company, Allen Wrench Contracting LLC, and is now leading Laidley's latest housing project on the corner of East Livingston Avenue and Berkley Road, a place Allen and others used as a drug hot spot years ago.
"This is God's work," Allen said. "When you get to build up what you tore down, it's a blessing."
Standing on their own
Despite their intervention and restoration programs, Laidley and Stevenson have gotten pushback from city officials and local organizations that Stevenson says don't always support residents in low-income areas.
"I ask them the questions they don't want to answer," Stevenson said of government officials. "In 2020, we're still fighting racism. How is that? We address every issue but racism. We change every law for every group except Black people."
For years, Stevenson has asked city and county officials for a potential job as an intervention specialist and additional funding for programs. Instead, he's said he's been put off because of his criminal history and inability to read and write.
Laidley said he's uncomfortable naming the detractors, but rather than stand by idly as conditions worsen, he and Stevenson decided to take matters into their own hands.
Over the past five years, Laidley said he's invested nearly $250,000 of his own money toward rebuilding the community — not only allocating money toward property renovation, but placing money in the hands of people he mentors to ensure they can support themselves and their families.
"We had to show (local officials) that it could be done in another manner," Stevenson said. "We're going to do it, with or without you."
Having witnessed Laidley and Stevenson's leadership, Columbus City Councilman Mitchell Brown said he's worked alongside the duo on several community-focused projects.
"Sean and Ephraim have acted as credible messengers in our community for some time," he said. "Sean works with young people to realize that violence is not the answer. He helps to lead them down a better path."
Finding a path forward
Laidley and Stevenson have joined together a handful of organization leaders and government officials to discuss the issues plaguing local neighborhoods. During these meetings, Laidley said he realizes how unaware many of them are about the obstacles minorities face.
“They don’t understand fundamentals; all the big stuff that leads to the circumstances people are in now," he said.
Columbus is on pace to set a new record for homicides in a single year year. In 2017, the city had 143 homicides and didn't reach 98 homicides until November. As of Wednesday, there were already 135 homicides in the city this year.
“We don't have to break another record this year,” Laidley said.
Under Elements of Change, Laidley and Stevenson look to continue using their influence and resources to end the violence across the city's landscape.
Resident Torie Stivison, who's worked to help rehab Laidley's newest housing unit, said their work has shed light on the true beauty of the city and has given residents an opportunity through property renovation to feed themselves and their families.
"It's absolutely wonderful because all these people need jobs," she said. "This is beautiful."