A new grassroots campaign has been launched by the President of the Devonshire Recreational Club to try and help stem violence in the community.

At yesterday's soccer match between the Devonshire Cougars and Boulevard Community Club, Craig Clarke began the 'One Love, One Community' campaign, which he hopes will help unify the Island against the recent upswell of violence.

The move comes a week after Cougars' player Shaki Minors, 26, was shot outside Southside Cinema, along with CedarBridge teacher Renee Kuchler, 24. It was the third shooting in as many weeks.

Jahmel Blakeney, 28, and Sanchey Grant, 18, were arrested in connection to the shooting which happened on Friday, November 13. Both men were released on Police bail, but Grant was later jailed for nine months for violating a probation order in an unrelated matter.

"It really hit home," said Mr. Clarke. "It affected my community and my club, so I decided to come out here with Boulevard a n d w i t h t h e D e v o n s h i r e Cougars and with some t-shirts and show people the movement has started.

"Everybody has to get involved in the movement. Maybe someone just wearing that shirt will deter someone. That's what it's all about."

Mr. Clarke is initially trying to spread his message through shirts, which carry the message 'One Love, One Community' on the front and 'Peace, Stop the Violence' on the back, but hopes in the future the campaign will spread throughout the Island.

"I want to spread these shirts all across Bermuda. I want the message on billboards, on buses, because enough is enough and the people in this community are tired."

He added: "Bermuda's become a victim of its own success because we've spent so much time chasing that international dollar that we've forgotten our own.

"We knew years ago there was an educational problem. If we're only graduating 50 percent of our young black males, what's going to happen? They're going to end up in prison or on the streets.

"We need to invest in our community clubs because community clubs are the pulse of this community."

Public Safety and Home Affairs Minister David Burch, who attended the campaign's launch, praised Mr. Clarke for his efforts.

"I was so delighted when Mr. Clarke wrote to me and said this is what he wanted to do," he said. "I had no choice but to support it, and encourage my colleagues to do so too.

"I believe that if we want to solve anything in this community, it will take the whole community."

Senator Burch said that progress was being made on his proposed peace summit involving Government, the private sect o r a n d o t h e r c o m m u n i t y leaders.

"It's coming," he said. "There's been a lot of talking and the idea is to get this going in the right direction and involve the right people. I don't want to exclude anyone.

"It's a work in progress. I'm hoping that we'll be able to pull it off before the end of the year."

While he feels the peace summit will help put the community on the right track, he said that simply talking about matters wouldn't solve the problem of violence.

"It's going to take a lot more than that. We've got to replace some things in terms of how they generate income and provide opportunities for these people.

"I think the most important thing is that we have to talk to them and not just at them.

"If you talk to the warring factions, they can't even tell you why they're warring. It's just been going on for so long.

"We're all related to each other. We shouldn't be shooting one another. It just defies logic."

Mr. Clarke agreed, saying: "I believe at the end of the day if we bring these factions together, they can realise that the young people in Bermuda have more in common than they have differences."

"What we've got to do is get them to sit down. Get them to the table and start to talk, start to communicate.

"Once you start that communication, they realise that a lot of the things they're fighting over are petty."