For nearly a decade, Fort Wayne UNITED has been implementing two national efforts under one umbrella, Cities United and My Brother’s Keeper, to ensure opportunities in our community that unite and help create a safer city for all.
The overarching goal is to bring the community of Fort Wayne together to attain racial healing, equity, education, and organizational transformation by developing shared knowledge and understanding around various topics related to diversity and inclusion.
WBOI’s Julia Meek spoke with its executive director, George Hicks and board chair, Dr. Faye Williams-Robbins about the progress being made.
To connect and learn more visit the Fort Wayne UNITED website.
Below is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: George Hicks, Dr. Faye Williams-Robbins, welcome.
George Hicks: Hello.
Faye Williams-Robbins: Hello.
Julia Meek: Now, Fort Wayne UNITED is making great strides since its launch in 2016. George, would you remind us of your core mission there?
George Hicks: Yes, our core mission is creating impact in underserved populations and communities.
Julia Meek: So, how would you describe the situation that you and yours inherited or took on back then? I'll ask you, Faye.
Faye Williams-Robbins: Well, I think at the time we began, we were seeing some things happening in the city, and certain populations of the city that, as we looked at it, were underserved, under resourced.
And so, we wanted to provide some resources but also provide some training and to bring that community into the fold of what's all happening in Fort Wayne.
Julia Meek: That's quite a noble goal. And violence being one of the big problems and being such an overwhelming force once it kind of takes over, who's most at risk when it does? Who is your population being served?
Faye Williams-Robbins: Well I think our population is just that community. There's so many wonderful things happening in the city of Fort Wayne, but it's not touching every corner of the city of Fort Wayne.
Julia Meek: And we're talking about the big southeast corner...
Faye Williams-Robbins: The southeast corner of the community, yes, yes.
Julia Meek: So, what are your proactive strategies to turn it around, to allow positive measures to be introduced, the ones that you do introduce to take hold?
George Hicks: What we want to do is empower our environment. We want to have safe, vibrant communities, and we want all those opportunities for people to strive at home, at work and also at school.
Julia Meek: And in your case, it's only right and it's only fair. What is holding these people back?
George Hicks: Just the opportunities. What we're doing is giving them opportunities. We're providing them with tools and resources to help them be successful.
Julia Meek: Okay, you've been at this since 2016 through 2025. It's been quite a wild ride. Would you say you're successful to date?
Faye Williams-Robbins: I think we are. We have kind of been flexible when it comes to what we see the needs are, and then adjusting what we provide in the way of support.
Julia Meek: You have to stay pretty fluid and ready to turn on a dime in that case, too.
George Hicks: Correct. We've been very intentional about not thinking we know everything. We've been very intentional about talking to the community and saying, What do you need? How can we support you?
Julia Meek: Are you finding folks are willing to talk to you? Do they not only trust you enough for this, but do they trust you enough to be there with solutions, for the first time in maybe a long time, of having been promised them?
Faye Williams-Robbins: Yes, all the pillars that we have are really, they have a foundation of relationship. And so once those relationships are established, people are more willing to open up and share about what their needs are, and they're happy to see us in the spaces that we're in.
George Hicks: Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. We are very intentional about making those contacts, having those conversations, and building relationships with individuals, companies and communities.
Julia Meek: It's a family affair.
George Hicks: It is.
Julia Meek: And a community affair all rolled into one. And as noted, 2016--2025, that does include one big year of COVID which also had inequity, Black Lives Matter, too much going on in the middle of it. What did it take for your organization and your population to get through that?
Faye Williams-Robbins: It gave us an opportunity to really step in, in spaces. There was a lot of feeding of people. I mean, really getting in parking lots and helping to hand out food and then being able to call on community organizations to come alongside us.
The George Floyd incident really drove the conversation around Fort Wayne UNITED. And that's one of those places where we have been flexible in saying, Here's a need, we are uniquely positioned to serve that.
Julia Meek: What did it feel like to be able to be there with solutions at a time when people didn't even know there was a problem, and all of a sudden, they were dumped with all of it on their heads.
George Hicks: The team came together after the George Floyd killing, and they put together what we call now our keynotes, having those crucial conversations with our community leaders, our business owners, so that we can begin to work toward healing in our community.
Julia Meek: And you're feeling again, satisfied?
George Hicks: We feel like we've made some great progress, and we have to continue to make progress as we move forward.
Julia Meek: As a matter of fact, the new normal we all found ourselves in as we were all moving forward through that really crazy time. How did that new normal drive your short- and longer-term problem solving? Did it make anything easier or just different?
Faye Williams-Robbins: I think it made things different, but it also highlighted the need. There were people who came to this conversation who'd never been part of the conversation.
So being able to bring folks into a room or at a live session or anything like that, to really focus on the pain and find some solutions, and sometimes that solution is just being able to talk about it.
Julia Meek: How about you, George, what does it mean to you to be the director of an organization that has these challenges, but also that capability to come in and make such a change?
George Hicks: What I like about Fort Wayne UNITED is its name itself. We are looking to unite Fort Wayne. And bringing people together is what we want to do. We want to touch lives at all levels.
And with the opportunities as we build out the pillars over time, as United Front Initiative, that was a pillar that was built out, we had the keynote speakers on a monthly basis, engaging in our community and having those crucial conversations.
Julia Meek: That became quite active and quite directive. Is that the fair way to say it?
George Hicks: It is. In addition to those conversations, it gave those individuals opportunities to build relationships with each other.
Because what happens is, over time, people really don't talk about race, they don't talk about things that are going on, but now it's out in the open, so it's giving them an opportunity to talk about things that we'd say, the elephant in the room.
Julia Meek: And we wish it didn't happen. We wish we didn't have to have these conversations, but making that first either inquiry or statement, that unleashed the floodgates, as it were?
George Hicks: It did. This was an opportunity, a killing that happened nationally. It was on the news. It was something that was right in our face.
And Fort Wayne UNITED decided to come together, and in a short amount of time, they were able to pull together the leaders that were needed to have these conversations and continue that, not just in 2020 but those conversations continue through today, in 2025.
Julia Meek: Gaining momentum, if anything.
George Hicks: Gaining momentum. And we're just looking to expand our conversations as we decide or talk to our community to find out, what are those additional needs.
Julia Meek: In the meantime, one great idea, your Ten Point Coalition. Just how was that born and how does it work?
George Hicks: So, 2018, there was an opportunity to work with our city of Fort Wayne, and with that, they identified an area of Fort Wayne that had one of the highest crime rates. And with that, we decided to, in a sense, put boots on the ground.
We have individuals that are walking the neighborhood, and most of these individuals are actually live within the neighborhood, so there's some vested interest for them to make sure that their community is safe.
Julia Meek: Now, what kind of feedback do you get from the neighbors? And actually, if we look at the whole thing at once, the surrounding community, what impact are you hearing about that you made?
George Hicks: Not only are we getting positive feedback from our residents, we're getting positive feedback from the business owners within that community, because as the team walks the neighborhood, they're building relationships with the homeowners, the residents, the renters, as well as those business owners.
And so what's exciting is that since we had to pause Ten Point, we went out in the community. We had a few walks just to find out if there was a continued need for Ten Point. And overwhelmingly, yes, there is a need. They're waiting for us to come back full force, and we're excited to do that. With the help of our community leaders, we will be back in full force.
Julia Meek: The pause was very brief. It was to work out mechanics of the whole operation, anyway, if we understand correctly. And very interesting, that you had such input. Did you realize that you had such support before it was known to you, shown to you?
George Hicks: Yes. So, time over time, looking at the results, the areas that were impacted within that community, overall, we had roughly a 70% decrease in crime over the four years. So, since 2018 we've been consistent and building those relationships.
It's more than just those individuals walking the community. It's building relationships with owners, with the young people. They're providing needs to the residents. They're out just as a friendly person shoveling snow, helping people with groceries and various tasks.
In addition to that, the workers have had an opportunity to provide infrastructure needs, report that to the city and have positive impacts in that community, quick turnarounds on infrastructure needs.
Faye Williams-Robbins: You know, there's one thing that a community person said, one of the neighbors living in that particular area. You know, sometimes when you live in a home by yourself, it's nice to have another person in the house just knowing someone else is there.
And they referred to Ten Point as the other person in the house. And so when they're not there, they feel that loss. And as we were walking, just kind of getting back onto the streets here recently, cars stopped.
People blew their horns. They waved. People in the community came out of their houses and wanted to talk, and they were just excited to see people back.
Julia Meek: Had to make your heart sing.
Faye Williams-Robbins: Absolutely.
Julia Meek: Does it also indicate, besides, obviously, the point that you should go on and do more, Is it leading you in directions? Is it telling you what more you need to do?
Faye Williams-Robbins: It really is, as we think about is this the only community, and how do we get others engaged? And so, it really gives us an opportunity to expand and help people to feel like they're really a part of this community and that people care about them.
Julia Meek: And what great points. Now let's look at the rest of your activity over the last nine years. What else have you been able to implement in these times with all of this going forward?
George Hicks: It's been great. We have implemented a program called Friday Tie Day, which is a program that impacts our young men within our high schools.
We kicked this program off in 2020 with New Haven High School. It's a great program, and now we've expanded that to four high schools and looking to expand to even more high schools in the next school year.
Julia Meek: Not only congratulations, job well done, but isn't this part of your original mission, of your group's very foundation, to help the young men? It's not easy for anybody to grow up, but in that neighborhood and in these situations, the challenge is doubled. What was the magic? What do you think the catalyst was to make this start working?
George Hicks: We're looking at statistics and the information that we received from the school systems, from law enforcement, in terms of students' grades, their behavior, and the Friday Tie Day program has been a tremendous positive impact on our young men.
They've been excited about going to school. Their tardies have decreased. Their behavior has turned around tremendously. And it's just been awesome because they have the opportunity to, in some cases, have a one-on-one mentor relationship with our leaders in the community. So, to me, that's been awesome.
And even as we look at another program, which is our Late Night Basketball. Late Night Basketball, again, we looked at the statistics, and we wanted to reduce crime. It's all about reducing crime in our city, which is going to make our city on the whole safe.
So, we looked at on Saturdays between the hours of eight and eleven. That seems to be a high crime rate within our community. And it impacted our young men between the ages of 14 and 25 so what we wanted to do was create a program, and that program was Late Night Basketball.
And with that, we were able to engage these young men, and these young men are coming in, they're having the health checks, we have leaders from the community sharing. So it's more than just basketball.
Julia Meek: Oh, it's nothing short of a miracle to turn things around that quickly, especially to that targeted market, which is hard to teach high school kids anything sometimes. (chuckles)
George Hicks: Absolutely. The program became so popular that we had students traveling from Southwest Fort Wayne to get here, and even as far as Warsaw, Indiana, that's how popular the program, again, was more than just basketball.
Julia Meek: Okay, with all of that, you must just be tickled pink.
George Hicks: I am, I am. And we're excited about just relaunching a lot of our programs that we've had in existence, and one of those programs is our Live program, so it's listening to the input and voices and engaging our young men as we're building relationships between the young men and law enforcement.
Julia Meek: Another totally critical relationship that has to be in a healthy community,
George Hicks: In a healthy community, in a healthy setting. Yes.
Julia Meek: Good for you. Now okay, you've obviously made such wonderful progress, and have to be very, very proud of yourselves and your organization, but this last year has been a rough one on everybody, especially nonprofits, especially DEI related advocates and justice seekers. What is it doing to you and yours?
Faye Williams-Robbins: I agree with everything that George said. I think people are really beginning to see that a healthy city means everybody. I mean, if you have even within your body, if there's a part that isn't healthy, your whole body feels that.
And so, knowing that these are people who are part of our community and reaching out to them means that we're a better Fort Wayne. Just a better Fort Wayne all the way around.
George Hicks: It's given us an opportunity to really think about and continue to foster relationship with those who really understand the work that we do matters. And we've had partners that have been a part of this process, this momentum, this movement that we've had.
They've been with us for nine years. And we want to continue those relationships, but we also have the opportunity to partner with other individuals who see this value that we're bringing to Fort Wayne. Again, it's Fort Wayne UNITED. We want to unite Fort Wayne.
George Hicks: Yeah, absolutely.
Julia Meek: And now, Fort Wayne is recognized nationally for its resilience, as a city that saved itself more than one time. Can that be expanded to include what Fort Wayne UNITED is doing right here, right now for the communal good?
George Hicks: I believe it does, because one of our focus is to collaborate. So, we have the opportunity, as we look forward, to collaborate with other organizations to maximize our gifts, maximize our talents, and have it more of an impact on Fort Wayne.
Faye Williams-Robbins: I think that's true. As we talk about where's the synergy? There's so many of us who are trying to do work, and sometimes it's the same work, but we're going in different directions, and so this gives us an opportunity to call on those organizations and to say, let's walk alongside each other, because we can have a larger impact.
Julia Meek: And as you go along and build the momentum and build your own impact, are you finding it's easier to get those to come marching with you?
George Hicks: Yes, we've had people reach out to us, as well as individuals and organizations that we've been reaching out to. People want to do good in the city.
You know that's why Fort Wayne is a great place to live. And so, when people see a movement, and they see people helping each other, they want to get involved. And we're finding that to be true.
Julia Meek: Good for you. And looking forward, then, what are some of your medium and long- range initiatives that you could mention?
George Hicks: One is, as we look at our programs, we want to make sure that we are looking at families. Continue to focus on families. Again, that's part of our youth achievement.
So we're looking to expand our programs within our school systems and within the community. That's just part of what we're looking to do.
Faye Williams-Robbins: We've also talked about a lot of this has been focused on young men. What about the young women? And so we're starting to have those conversations.
How do we create programming that helps the young ladies also to see themselves in a different light, to know that there are people out there who care about them, and to bring resources to those needs.
Julia Meek: Wonderful goals, and you know you're taking on a lot and accomplishing it. What do you say to folks who simply won't believe it's a problem or it's of their making, or it just doesn't exist. What do you say?
Faye Williams-Robbins: We look at Fort Wayne, and part of the reason we're doing this work, we look at Fort Wayne, and we know in our minds that we sort and separate. The folks that live on this side versus the folks that, well, I don't want to live there, and I don't want to drive there.
And so, people in a real world understand that we're going to be a healthy city if we're all healthy. And so we say to them, this is about shared humanity. This is not about this person or that person, or separating and sorting, but it's about, what city do you want to live in?
When you go to the grocery store, when you go to the gas station, those kinds of things, what experience do you want to have? And that means that everybody needs to feel a part of the city and receive the support that they need.
Julia Meek: Be united.
Faye Williams-Robbins: Yes.
George Hicks: Yes.
Julia Meek: And last question, at the end of the day, your work is more meaningful, likely tougher, likely higher stakes than ever before. You're doing well, there's always more to do. So what motivates the two of you to work that hard and care that much for this community that we all love?
Faye Williams-Robbins: I think it has to be understanding that this is not about what you get paid. And so, if you care about laying your head down at night in a place that's safe and comfortable, then you have to understand you have to give something.
Sometimes that's just your time. It's your energy, it's your thoughts, your creativity. And so that's what drives me in saying that I know I don't want to get in my car and say I can't drive here, or I can't stay there. I want to be able to go and engage with people from all backgrounds, that whole shared humanity conversation.
And so that drives me because there are people in need, and it's not their fault always. And so how do we lean into that?
Julia Meek: And George?
George Hicks: Yeah, I would agree as well. As we look at success, you know, a lot of times we want to be that person who's successful.
And I think that if we rejoice in other success and understand that I have the opportunity to pour into someone that can be successful, that's going to make us, as a whole, a successful city and a nation.
Julia Meek: George Hicks is executive director of Fort Wayne UNITED and Dr. FayE Williams-Robbins its board chair. Thank you for the work you do and for sharing your story with us today. Blessings on that journey.
Faye Williams-Robbins: Thank you.
George Hicks: Thank you, Julia.
