Walking While Black L.O.V.E. is the Answer Made it to the House Floor
Yeadon Police-Community L.O.V.E Garden — The World’s First!
Yeadon Police and other community members broke ground on a Police/Community L.O.V.E. Garden at Yeadon Community Park, located at 523 S. Union Ave, Yeadon, PA, on Monday, May 10, 2021. The project comes from the Yeadon Police involvement with the film, “WALKING WHILE BLACK: L.O.V.E. Is The Answer” created by A.J. Ali, and the L.O.V.E. Is The Answer program he created dedicated to improving police and community relationships nationwide and teaching people throughout the world how to love themselves and others.
The L.O.V.E. is the Answer Movement is about putting four steps into action:
- – Learn about others.
- – Open your heart to them.
- – Volunteer to be part of the solution in their life.
- – Empower others to do the same.
Chief Anthony “Chachi” Paparo and the Yeadon Borough Police were one of the first organizations to commit to participating in the inaugural “National Day of Reconciliation,” (now known as “L.O.V.E. Is The Answer Day”) in September of 2019. Out of that event, a couple of people — Barbara Simmons and De Dee Loftin-Davis — took L.O.V.E. Is The Answer back home to Bucks County where they introduced our work to the District Attorney Matt Weintraub. In the year to follow, more than 60 police departments and a half dozen District Attorneys throughout the state of Pennsylvania would adopt L.O.V.E. Is The Answer in their training and operations. L.O.V.E. Is The Answer has helped peace officers and other members of the community grow closer together. The work in Bucks County, which was sparked by the screening in Yeadon, also led to L.O.V.E. Is The Answer partnering with The Peace Center in Bucks County to provide highly trained event facilitators for in-person screenings in Yeadon and virtual screening events around the world.
“I’m very excited that Chachi is leading the charge on the nation’s first L.O.V.E. Garden!,” said A.J. Ali. “There are gardens being planned in a dozen states so far, from coast to coast, but this is the first ground-breaking of any of them. Chachi is a true leader, and a true community servant. We love and appreciate him and we salute him as a L.O.V.E. Is The Answer Coalition member making a difference.”
“Yeadon Police are dedicated to our community and the goal is to do more than just talk, and actually take action to make change possible, because it is,” said Chief Paparo. “The end result is changing the narrative; destroying hate, division, and racism, and building relationships with our community that recognize we are all human beings regardless of the color of our skin or anything else.”
If you’re in the Yeadon, PA area, Chachi extends this invitation: Come join us for this endeavor and see what thinking outside the box in policing can do to get us all to start talking to learn about one another, and stop letting hate and violence thrive.
Here’s one of the many articles that came out about the garden: https://www.delcotimes.com/news/yeadon-police-unveil-first-in-nation-police-community-garden-project/article_1aa7882c-b1e5-11eb-8b0d-7f8f38eae359.html. Google “L.O.V.E. Garden Yeadon PA” for more.
