CENTRALIA — Residents of Centralia and neighboring towns are encouraged to attend a community meeting on July 9 at 7pm at the Community Youth Center in Centralia to learn effective ways to address crime and addiction.

The third community meeting of its kind — following two well-attended and productive drug awareness and anti-violence symposiums — will focus on neighborhood watches and feature speakers who have expertise in the signs and symptoms of addiction and local resources for family and community members.

A panel of representatives from area neighborhood associations will distribute a manual created by the National Sheriff’s Association which contains step-by-step instructions for the creation and maintenance of a neighborhood watch.

Information about the existing neighborhood watches within the City of Centralia will be attached to the manual and distributed to attendees at the meeting. In addition, members of a newly created Neighborhood Watch Task Force will announce the dates and locations of quarterly meetings.

The Task Force is composed of representatives of local neighborhood associations, representatives from the City of Centralia, the Community Resource Center, the Housing Authority and law enforcement. Task Force will serve as a resource and information clearinghouse for individuals and neighborhoods interested in creating a neighborhood watch.

The Task Force members will also collect data within neighborhoods that have associations to track their success in reducing crime and identify and target areas of the city that do not have a neighborhood watch and recruit and assist its residents to initiate one. A panel of members of area neighborhood watches and associations will be present to answer questions from the audience.

The director and clinical director of the Community Resource Center will provide expert information about recognizing the symptoms of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Community members will learn the behaviors a person suffering from the disease of addiction commonly displays and the resources that exist in the community to help the addict and the family obtain help.

The community meeting is on July 9 at 7pm at the Community Youth Center, 1224 East Rexford Street in Centralia.

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