Gun violence is a terrible symptom of what troubles our communities. Dealing with it has become a quality of life issue, and to understand how gun violence affects us, we need to take a look at our communities.

I am pastor at Uptown Baptist Church on Chicago's North Side. In this community, there is incredible diversity -- rich, poor and middle class, those with Ph.D's and those with no education, people of all colors and backgrounds. People live, work and worship next to one another. It's essential that they come together to fight crime, including the threat of gun violence.

We have seen here how a community can improve itself and deal with its problems.

For example, consider the murals that have gone up in Chicago's Uptown community. One that is intact at Sunnyside and Sheridan was done in the mid-1990's, before I got here. Before the mural went up, that area was called "Blood Alley," because of all the stabbings and rapes and shootings there. When the mural went up, crime took a nosedive in that area. There is still crime there, but it's way better than it was 8 to 10 years ago. A friend of mine has explained to me that where there is order and beauty, many criminals have been known to scatter.

Meanwhile, over the years our church has participated in Mayor Daley's gun turn-in events. At the first one, about 90 weapons were turned in; then, that number rose to about 100 or 115. Last time, about 230 weapons were turned in.

I have seen the impact of people getting involved in this community. One example is the city's CAPS program (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy), which encourages average citizens to be the eyes and ears of the police department and become part of the city's decision-making process on how to fight crime.

What happens? Churches, block clubs, businesses and others all say, "We live in this place. We worship here and we want to stay here. Let's see what we can do to work together to solve issues that affect us."

In 2004, there was a lot of prostitution, pimping and drug dealing in the area where this church is located. People came together to create positive responses to this problem and crime went down.

We learned that leaders around the world in countries hit by violence -- including England, France and Belgium -- found out about what we were doing. The BBC flew a team here to learn about our community and how we approached problems related to crime.

As we look to the future, we must focus on the youth in our communities and understand how our world has changed.

When I was a kid, children got in trouble in middle and elementary for chewing gum in class or throwing paper airplanes. Once in a while there was a fight. In high school, maybe someone pulled a knife once a year. Now, we are much more likely to see murder and guns.

In our communities, we also see who kids are turning to or not turning to — when they need someone. Most kids that perpetrate crimes do so because they don't know how to handle anger and express it in the wrong way.

The majority of these kids, of course, are boys, and many of them don't have a male role model. Unfortunately, they often find that role model in a gang.

Where can kids find role models? Well, it's important for us to hire more men as teachers. We also need to provide after school clubs for kids clubs that have some male mentors.

Let's face it, we can be more creative about how we use spaces in our community after school — it's time for the faith community to open up more of its buildings for after school programs. Organized activities that are fun can help children develop.

Overall, there are many ways to improve our community, and that will help us address the problem of gun violence. We need to use as many tools that we have in our toolbox as possible. That will mean bringing together people from all walks of life in our community and using the resources and assets we have to make a difference.

We are committed to the long haul, and pray for the eventual reality of making our community and other communities safer and more peaceful places.