David Garcia, owner of Barrio Restoration, is helping clean up Tucson neighborhoods and offer resources to people experiencing homelessness.
He is part of a community-led effort called Defend Nuestro Barrio, which involves volunteers walking throughout South Tucson to help people in need.
As the Arizona Luminaria reported, the campaign addresses many of Tucson's biggest challenges, including homelessness, litter, fentanyl addiction, and fear of deportation.
Garcia's Barrio Restoration, along with South Tucson government leaders and a local soup kitchen, is collaborating to enhance public health and safety in the community. The organizations also have the support of nearby tribal nations.
The campaign is a unique initiative designed to address community issues where funding and resources are scarce. The volunteers involved are helping people on the streets feel less alone and safer despite their challenging situations.
Together, they pick up trash, hand out water and hygiene kits, and ask the primarily Latino and Indigenous community members what they need to improve their lives.
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"The goal is to see people do better. And I think we're just tired of it getting worse," Garcia said. "Something's got to be done, and it's not that we're telling people to leave. We're just trying to tell people that we need respect, and I think we have to be consistent in that."
Defend Nuestro Barrio is an excellent example of people coming together to take local action in their community. The involved organizations address various issues through this campaign, making it a unique solution guided by concern and compassion.
In other neighborhoods, people have been setting positive and sustainable examples by launching neighborhood cleanup projects, addressing waste management issues, and making city streets safer.
Wherever you live, you, too, can take matters into your own hands and create a campaign centered on an issue you care about. If you don't have the time to start a project like Garcia did, there's also the option of donating money to worthwhile causes.
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Giving me money back 💰 Whether it's cleaning up litter, helping individuals overcome addiction, or ensuring vulnerable people have access to shelter during extreme heat waves, every action makes a difference to someone in our interconnected world.
"We're already feeding people, clothing people, empowering people, trying to," Garcia said. "We built those relationships already."
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