OIC Asks Springfield Residents to Stop Scrutinizing Lack of Action
BY JEFF SKINNER
SPRINGFIELD - Springfield commissioners held a special meeting prior to their regular session to provide Opportunities for Individual Change, or OIC, the ability to share a special report after community push back due to a lack of transparency of actions taken to help address gun violence in the city.
In 2023, OIC was tapped to act as the fiduciary and lead in a consortium of organizations and government agencies including Springfield Police Department, City Commissioners, NAACP, Clark County Combined Health District, Clark County Juvenile Court, Springfield Public Schools and others , in a request for bid on several federal grants allocated for addressing gun violence. Since 1989, OIC has been the Community Action Agency of record for the city as a nonprofit best situated for handling issues related to homelessness and community needs.
As a result of their position within the consortium in 2023, OIC was awarded a federal grant to address youth gun violence worth up to $1.6 million. As has been previously reported, gun violence has exploded across the city since 2019, as has arson, and reports indicate that the city has actively attempted to obscure the true rates of violence in the city through official reporting channels.
During the meeting, Leslie Crew, executive director of OIC, was given the opportunity to present a special presentation on the services OIC provides, which may have been a backdoor attempt to address growing outrage over the lack of action city officials have taken to address the matter. During her presentation, Crew spent more than half the time outlining homeless services OIC currently provides, an ongoing issue in Springfield as residents are increasingly displaced due to rising housing costs in competition with Haitian migrants using government and nonprofit backed subsidies. During the end of the presentation, Crew addressed several key concerns over the expenditures OIC has made with the $1.6 million they were given. Based on the presentation, OIC used the funds to hire one full time staff position and conducted a community needs assessment, alongside forming meetings with NAACP and various county organizations and government institutions.
According to Crew's report, OIC had spent down $400,000 in 'consultant fees', community needs evaluation, a full time coordinator, ‘oversight’ and 'strategic planning'. Crew's report indicated there was little more than meetings and data collection funded with more than $400,000 in federal dollars. It has been a difficult pill to swallow for residents questioning how these events, and one full-time position, could equal $400,000 in such a short amount of time.
Crew's claimed the strategic plan, which was formed through all of these meetings was awaiting final approval when the federal government abruptly cancelled 373 grants related to gun violence, including large portions of their own grant. OIC claimed in their report they incurred an additional $40,000 in nonreimbursable costs due to the cancellation of said grants. According to Crew, OIC has submitted an appeal on this and reached out 4 different times on behalf of their coalition and received no response. During her report to Springfield Commissioners, Crew closed with a statement to push back on residents who have questioned whether OIC was truly utilizing funds responsibility or even accomplishing anything of value, effectively telling residents, ‘if you have a problem with the work we do, try it yourselves.’
“I watch these meetings every other Tuesday and it's been quite a learning curve” Crews said. “I've been in this community my whole life. I've done social work my whole life. I've been with Rocking Horse Center. I've been with JFS. I've been with FCFC. I've been with Wittenberg. My life has always been about advocating on behalf of kids and families. What I will say about this community is that anyone that's a frontline worker, anyone that's in the social services field, anyone that's in a government position, I know that your heart's in the right place. I know that you're working for the right reason. I know that you're all advocates for people that are disadvantaged. I think it's important for people that come to these meetings, participate. I think it's wonderful that you offer the opportunity for them to ask questions, even challenge decisions that are made. I think it's great that we have this forum. I would encourage people to offer support for solutions rather than speculation. I think that all of us that have done this a minute aren't doing it for the money. We're not doing it for any kind of fame. We're doing it because we care about people and we want a better community. Participate in United Ways Day of Service. participate in social services 101 so that you know what this community does. We do a lot of good for a lot of different people and I think that that's what we should focus on more during these meetings.”
Reports from residents such as Beth Donahue of Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition emphatically rejected this notion however. According to Steward’s upcoming book, Bloodlines and Bullets, which Crew's report did not dispel, OIC spent $400,000 on data collection with no real plan or strategies to address any findings, if there were any, when the DOJ cancelled the grant altogether.
“This collapse created a "vacuum of prevention" immediately preceding a massive surge in lethal violence in May and June 2025, including multiple homicides and a mass shooting,” Donahue said.
City officials have regularly deferred questions on the growing violence epidemic of the city to OIC, who has pointed to their vaunted efforts in data collection as the forthcoming answer to address the issue. Donahue’s new book, “Bloodlines & Bullets: Unraveling Springfield’s Generational Crime,” presents a stark, unvarnished look at the 42 homicides that occurred between January 2021 and July 2025. Drawing on a meticulous review of court records, police reports, and internal city data, Donahue argues that the city’s unprecedented violence is not random, but the predictable result of profound institutional collapse.
During the commissioner meeting, one resident, Cindy Mullet, used her time in public comments to read the names of victims of gun violence in the city to commissioners.
“Taburn Randy William Graham Jr. Chris Cleber, Clifton James Spencer Sharp, Ray Eastep, Rodri L. Fud, Tiffany A. Higgins, Richard Howard, Edward Ellington, Richard Bell, Shahem Gibson, Michael Mentor, Rake Ford, Gregory Allen Wells, Kyle M. Harris, James Gillum, Orl Fowler, Thomas Gil, Daryl Stamper, Kevin Vau, Tamisha Reed, Darien Wellifford, Joshua Tacket, Melvin Lee Bell Jr., Gary Strode, Camille Golden, Brett Love, Antoine Crooks, Philip Wrigle, Cashla Collins, Naa Stewart, Thomas Arnell Stewart, Chad Everett Bent, Nathan Zimmerman, Tyler Fulen, Hayne Thompson, Austin Brown, Dalton Mener, Christy Lai, Cory Hazes, Steven Wagner, Antonio Moore, Gary Cameron, Howard Edley, Scott Williams, Beard, Cedric Colt Jr., Andrea Heiser, Jennifer Sirens, Lindseay Marsh, Lindseay Wilson, Hobie Ethrington, Joshua Smith, William Allen Bevery Jr. Beverly Jr. Joshua Brown, Robert Robinson, Anthony Toiver, James White, Brandon Dearman, Jeffrey Wright, Lacy Henry, Melody Turner, Timothy Fr, Mark Wells, Kathy Evans, Byron, Michael Lawson, Andriny, Shaquan Nubbie, Charles Murf, Travis Faster, William Haney, James Mundy, James Roupert, Marque Way, Aiden William Johnson, Balon Johnson, George Walker, Jeff Willington, Eric Wheeler, Skyler Mullet, Ernest Edwards, Barry Davis, Christy Arman, Senior,” Mullet said. “That's not just 120. That's all I got to give you in 3 minutes. Those are the names of the victims that have fallen to gun violence in Springfield.”
The Springfield City Commissioners meet every other Tuesday. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m.
