Dozens of community members from across Salem gathered in the Big Lots parking lot on Northeast Lancaster Drive Thursday evening.
The group mingled in the parking lot and joined in prayer before walking peacefully in a 1.5 mile loop together through the North Lancaster neighborhood with the intention of building community trust and reducing violence.
The walks, referred to as community peace walks, are one of the violence reduction tactics introduced during the city’s Community Violence Reduction Initiative listening sessions this spring and summer.
The sessions began in March and concluded in August. As the city works to hire a coordinator to help facilitate the program moving forward and devise strategies, several local faith groups and nonprofits are already taking steps toward deploying the tactic to help curb violence in Salem.
Oak Park Church of God facilitated the walk Thursday night, but the event was made possible through a collaboration of several local church groups and organizations that spent the summer planning and gathering community support.
Prior to the walk, Matt Ingalls, the senior pastor at Oak Park Church of God, spoke through a megaphone to the group, which included Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack and Mayor Chris Hoy.
(Joe Siess/Salem Reporter)
As Ingalls spoke over the whoosh of rush hour traffic on Northeast Lancaster Drive and Northeast Sunnyview Road, community members prepared to walk, putting on white T-shirts that read, “Peace Walk Salem,” on the front. The back of the shirts read, “Caminando juntos por la paz en Salem,” which is Spanish for “Walking together for peace in Salem.”
“As many of you know, violence has increased in our community over the last few years. And if you look at the city’s mapping of their data, this is right there in the red zone,” Ingalls said. “It is not just about violent crime, there are a lot of things that are happening in this little area.”
Ingalls told the group to expect to encounter homelessness during the walk and said it is a misconception that unhoused people are violent or dangerous.
“Actually, the police’s data has shown and proven that if you are homeless in Salem you are more likely to have an act of violence committed against you rather than committing that violence,” Ingalls said.
Ingalls said the peace walks are meant to humanize the neighborhood, engage residents and build relationships to empower those in the neighborhood to one day join and lead future peace walks.
While many of the participants were from local Christian churches, Ingalls said the peace walks are not about religion and are open to all community members.
“For the Christains in the crowd, we are not going to proselytize,” Ingalls said. “This is not an evangelism walk, OK. That would just drive a wedge between us and the people we are trying to reach.”
After Ingalls, Ben McBride, the city’s violence reduction specialist, gave the group some encouragement, and Pastor Ronnie Brooks of To God Be the Glory Church led the group in prayer.
“Let us be the people here in Salem that are actually making not just a dent in the violence tonight, but we are writing a new story tonight. Stepping into the community to write peace for the faces that we see and for the faces that we will see in the future,” McBride said. “Even though you may not know me, I’m super proud of you all. I’m excited for the neighborhood. Let’s walk this community, and as Pastor Matt said, bring love, bring care and bring a genuine concern for the needs of our people.”
As the walk commenced, local drivers gave the group friendly honks and waves, and some stopped their vehicles to ask the walkers what was happening or to express gratitude for walking for peace.
Ryan Erickson-Kulas of the Highland Neighborhood Association walked slowly along Northeast Sunnyview Road with a cooler in tow, handing out popsicles to curious and amused onlookers.
A number of locals along the route, which went up Northeast Coral Avenue to Northeast Wolverine Street and back down Lancaster Drive, came out of their homes to wave and share a moment with the group.
Back at Big Lots, after the walk, the group reconvened to share what they had learned from the experience. Some participants said there was a clear need for more Spanish speakers to join the walks to better communicate with the many Spanish-speaking residents encountered along the way.
Deanna Garcia, the chair of the North Lancaster Neighborhood Association, said she heard about the peace walks at the July violence reduction meeting and tried to get one started that night.
She said she encouraged people to meet her at the 7-Eleven at Sunnyview and Lancaster for a peace walk after the meeting, but nobody showed up. She got a Slurpee and went home, she said.
Then she heard about the peace walk on Thursday and was thrilled that others had taken the initiative to get things moving.
“The walk gets people out into the community that they live in or are a part of. There’s people from different churches and faith communities from all over Salem that are actually getting to experience northeast Salem, on the ground, as it is,” Garcia said.
Garcia said participants who don’t spend much time in the neighborhood were delighted by the colorful houses and the friendly people in the area.
“I love it that people can come here and see that this isn’t a problem area. There might be some things going on, but everything is fixable. And we really truly live here and positive change is possible,” Garcia said. “I just want to see people working together to make northeast Salem the best place possible.”
Ingalls said the goal at this point is to hold a peace walk at least once a month, and to encourage other local groups to start peace walks in other parts of the city.
He named some of the other local groups involved in the initiative.
They include Tabernaculo De Salem, Seed of Faith Ministries International, Salem First Free Methodist Church, McKay Young Life, the Salem Leadership Foundation, St. Thomas Covenant Church, and the Liberty Christian Church.
“Here’s your last call to action,” Ingalls said at the end of the event. “We don’t want this to be the only peace walk in Salem…maybe you are like, ‘Hey, you know what? My neighborhood needs a peace walk.’ I’m going to put myself out on a limb and say I’ll help you start one if you want to start one in your neighborhood.”
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
