The effort to bring the City of Ferguson together after the death of Michael Brown and the unrest that followed continued on Sunday.
The Southeast Ferguson Community Association’s first annual Community Appreciation Day was held at the Canfield Green Apartment Complex near where Brown died.
Days after the three-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death, the city of Ferguson and its residents want change. And they say the way to get there is going to have start in the neighborhoods.
Latasha Brown, a resident leader of the Southeast Ferguson Community Association, said it takes a community to change a community.
"We can do some positive and we can take that negative Ferguson effect away from us if we make that change ourselves,” she said. “We are the first step to the change."
Community Appreciation Day is hoping to be a bridge that brings the community together.
Dara Eskridge, a senior project manager at Urban Strategies, has been helping the community association with a neighborhood transformation plan and with their vision to make the community better.
"This is an opportunity to say and to see that there are residents who are committed to making the change and driving and owning that process,” she said. “This is an invitation for all other neighbors to do the same thing."
Brown said change is always hard, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying.
"We all got to be willing to accept the change,” she said. “It can’t just be one sided. Change comes from both sides. It's two sides. We have to change something about ourselves as a people and they have to change something about themselves as the city and if we come together we can find some neutral ground."
The change Ferguson resident Rose Neal wants to see is for the violence to stop.
"Three people had their windows shot out because of this running back and forth shooting at each other and that makes me afraid to come out my door," Neal said.
Neal and other Ferguson residents believe more resources, more opportunities for the youth could help.
"If we can offer something that they are interested in then it would be a better community," she said.
A community, they all feel, is worth fighting for.
"As we live together, we need to learn how to work together and be together as one,” Ferguson resident, Kim Sleet said.
