Unique Neighborhood Watch group teaches safety to Spanish ...

"I always wanted to do something like this in my neighborhood." -- Eva Hurst-San Martin

The Neighborhood Watch that gathered for Night Out Against Crime at Leticia's Beauty Barber Shop in the 4000 block of Tulane Avenue in New Orleans on Tuesday is similar in many ways to other groups of its kind. Members have attended meetings designed to educate residents about personal safety, how to secure homes and vehicles, and how to stay vigilant and aware of their surroundings on the street.

But, at the same time, the Neighborhood Watch based out of Leticia's is unique: Officials say it is the only such group for Spanish speakers in the city of New Orleans, which has 18,000 or so Hispanic inhabitants. "We thought it was important to have a space for Spanish-speaking residents to be able to do their part in fighting crime," said Eva Hurst-San Martin, who helped found the Neighborhood Watch. "And it's right in a neighborhood where many of them live."

Hurst had been giving acupuncture treatments on the weekends at Leticia's when she told others there about the work she performed as the public safety program coordinator for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans' Hispanic Apostolate. The topic interested those who listened to Hurst, a native of Honduras and longtime New Orleans resident. Like Hurst, they owned property, lived or worked in the Mid-City area and happened to be Hispanic.

Hurst's job at Catholic Charities ended this summer because the Hispanic Apostolate's public safety program grant was discontinued in July. So she asked the salon owner and its regular customers if they wanted to start a Neighborhood Watch. They did, and they applied to be certified by the city's Crime Prevention Office.

The group, comprised mostly of women who frequent Leticia's, spent the summer participating in a series of presentations in Spanish given by NOPD officer Janssen Valencia, who oversees El Protector, an outreach program designed, in part, to strengthen the New Orleans Police Department's relationship with the Hispanic community. During the meetings, Liliam Talbott, a salon employee from Honduras who has been in New Orleans for seven years, said she learned not to hide spare keys in plants or under the doormat, because burglars know to check there.

At the meetings, residents were instructed to change the locks at new apartments to prevent former tenants who kept their keys from being able to enter. There was an explanation about the Mid-City Security District's role in the neighborhoods, and helpful authorities' phone numbers other than 911 were given out.

Talbott said the safety tips were valuable ones she would not have picked up on at other Neighborhood Watch meetings in New Orleans because she doesn't understand English well enough yet. "You feel more comfortable expressing yourself and just being around your own language," Talbott explained Tuesday. "We all found the meetings very useful."

Talbott's friend, Mid-City resident Josefa Torres, said Hispanic people who primarily speak Spanish "are interested in learning English. It's the United States' language. But some of our neighbors are just arriving and don't know who to turn to for help. ... Now we know there are numbers where we can call and be served."

Hosting the Night Out Against Crime party at Leticia's was the Neighborhood Watch's first project. The group offered visitors arroz con pollo y frijoles negros, or rice with chicken and black beans, donated by Ideal Food Market. Guests chatted over Bachata music on the stereo and picked up Crimestoppers fingerprint kits for children with instructions in Spanish. At one point, 1st District Commander Robert Norton dropped in to and greet the women and men at the salon.

Hurst handled most of the arrangements, relying on her experience at Catholic Charities. Her duties there included inviting Hispanic residents to anti-crime community events organized by the NOPD's 6th District, which patrols Central City, the Irish Channel and the Garden District.

The difference between that and what occurred at Leticia's is that her property and friends weren't in the 6th District but in Mid-City. "It wasn't my neighborhood, and I always wanted to do something like this in my neighborhood," Hurst said.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/first_neighborhood_watch_for_s.html

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