Much to his surprise, Willie Mitchell is spending his retirement years only two blocks from where he lived as a teen in the Bromley-Heath public housing development.

“Retired” isn’t exactly the right word, though, as Willie is one of the founders and leaders of JS LOVS. Jackson Square: Lifting Our Voices for Safety is a new grassroots group engaging residents in making the neighborhood safer for youth, seniors, and all those in between.

“Jamaica Plain is changing,” he says, “and a lot of people feel left out. A lot of people feel like they don’t have a voice.”

Willie and his youngest son, now a college sophomore, moved into JPNDC’s new Hattie Kelton Apartments on Heath Street in the early days of the pandemic.

A winding path led him back to his old neighborhood. Willie studied computers in the early days, long before most people had ever seen one. He took his skills into the communications field and he built a career in radio. He bought a house in Randolph and expected to stay there.

Years later, with three of his four children already on their own, the world seemed to turn against Willie. The radio station was sold, he was out of a job, and he lost the house.

Even worse, he says, “me and my son were victims of domestic abuse. I hate to admit it, but I tell my story just in case it will help someone else.”

He adds, “You’d be surprised what you can do when you have a child and you need to protect that child. It’s like a lion protecting a cub from the alligators.”

Driving in Jamaica Plain one day, he saw a building under construction and a sign about applications being accepted for affordable apartments. He submitted his application, and a few months later he and his son moved in. They were among 2,736 households who applied for the 47 units at Hattie Kelton Apartments.

Soon, Willie got a call from JPNDC’s Community Organizing Director, Giovanny Valencia. “You know how he is,” Willie laughs. “He said, ‘I’d like for you to be a leader in your building so we can put things together.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m retired.’ And he’s like, ‘I think you’d be good.’”

Willie found he enjoyed hearing people’s stories and helping turn the building into a community where people know each other and can solve problems together. And the next year, when JPNDC joined with other nonprofits in the Living Safely in Jackson Square Coalition (thanks to funds from Children’s Hospital), he got another call—this time to work with 13 other building captains representing more than 1,000 households living within a half mile of the T Station.

With support from JPNDC the 14 leaders worked over many months, participating in leadership and community organizing workshops and training from the JP Trauma Team on helping people who have been traumatized by violence.

Based on their own experiences, what they learned, and the feeling that violence endangered their children and grandchildren, they decided their focus had to be safety. They chose their name and wrote their mission statement:

Our goal is to promote safety within the Jackson square neighborhood to protect and save our children! We wish to utilize our voices to come together to find solutions and provide resources for all Jackson Square community members.

The JS LOVS leaders are working hard on outreach to their neighbors, asking them to sign a Safety Pledge and complete a survey about their concerns and interests.

Apart from asking people to fill out a survey, Willie explains, “we’ll say, ‘Let us know how you feel about things. Let us know what you care about. Let us know if you need help. We can’t help with everything, but if we can, we’ll connect you’.”