“The message is simply this: No longer can we wait for someone to come into our neighborhoods and take care of our children. The responsibility falls on all of us to provide a safe, clean and nurturing community.”

That is the theme of the latest episode of “May’s Message,” part of an ongoing video series produced by Escambia County Television.

In this episode, District 3 Commissioner Lumon May takes a look at the violence that has plagued the community and what is being done to help turn this situation around.

The show will also be airing daily on ECTV, which is available on local pay television providers (Channel 98 on Cox Cable, Mediacom and the Brighthouse Networks, Channel 99 on AT&T Uverse). You can also access ECTV streaming free on the internet by clicking here.

May highlights work being done by staff and volunteers at Wedgewood and Ebonwood community centers to help children through summer camps sponsored free of charge.

Tre Bonner is one of the counselors at the Wedgewood camp that includes academic help, meals, arts and crafts, and recreation opportunities.

He said there were close to 150 kids at the camp on most days. He speaks about the impact reaching out to school-aged children can have in the long term.

“You change lives by building the foundation up," Bonner said. "Every kid's parents can’t afford to pay the $160 a week (for summer enrichment camps). They’re trying, but they just can’t. To take these kids on and say you are going to do it (free of charge) it’s just tremendous.”

Leroy Williams, coordinator at Ebonwood Community Center, said the program spread by word of mouth throughout the summer with more children showing up every day.

He says the staff is certain that the kids’ grades and school performance will be better next school year because of their experiences at camp.

Malaka Desroches, a volunteer at the Ebonwood center, said she felt working in the center this summer was part of her responsibility to make her community a better place.

“Some of the kids who have major influence… have great leadership qualities but they lead their peers in the wrong direction,” Desroches said. Staff members have one-on-one sessions to help redirect the force of that personality toward something positive.

And they say it is working.

The video also includes footage from a community news conference following the shooting death of Shaquille Purifoy, 20, this June that included pastors from throughout the community and Purifoy’s father, Robert Gross, who leaded not for retaliation or revenge, but for a “cease fire.”

“In the community, I hear talk,” Gross said. “I hear parents telling their children, ‘Stay out of this, it’s none of your business.’ I beg to differ. If  you see something, it is your business, because it may be your child next, laying there while my child is because somebody said it was none of their business when someone asked what went on… If we are going to survive, we need every voice and every eyes looking out for one another.”

Watch the episode here.