Community Outreach & Its Impacts In Communities

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Building relationships, one cup at a time.

That’s the motto in Monroe County Thursday morning.

Locals and law enforcement will have the chance to spend time together over coffee and breakfast at a local business in Aberdeen.

It will be the second Coffee with a Cop this year, but this time, it’s being put on by the county.

Coffee with a Cop has one main goal, community outreach.

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says it’s a time that allows officers and deputies to be seen as regular people.

“A lot of times, when you meet the police officers, or sheriff’s deputies, or whatever, it’s usually, it’s something bad. We want to do something as a good time, when people are laughing and talking, and having a good time and building strong relationships throughout the community,” said Sheriff Cantrell.

Director Sara Nerren believes there’s no better time for community outreach than now. She says there’s a divide between police and people across the nation.

“I guess, maybe when people know that you’re doing community outreach, they kind of reach out to you and so that’s what I have been blessed with. To experience here doing Coffee with a Cop is that people do want to help and they just reach out,” said Nerren.

Sheila Higgins is one of those people. She’s opening her restaurant’s doors to help bring everyone under one roof.

“Maybe, somehow down the line, that personal experience with them might help you with, what in the future holds for them, because you don’t ever know when we are going to get stopped, or something happens in your family. Everybody is so quick to blame the officers for, you know, for anything that goes wrong in their life. They don’t think about maybe what they have done, you know, to get themselves in that position,” said Higgins.

Nerren says Coffee with a Cop and other community events during the year truly make a difference.

“We can’t halfway do things. So I am comparing ourselves, even with other communities. I am looking at things that they’re doing and how we can implement what works and what doesn’t work. So what I am seeing is our numbers, when we have these kind of events, are sometimes three and four times larger than other communities,” said Nerren.

At the end of the day, bonding, building and bringing everyone together in a place they all call home is what it’s all about.

“It’s really hard to hate someone that you meet and then you become their friend. It’s hard to talk bad about them then. Just trying to have a drama free environment,” said Nerren.

Higgins says the The Biscuit Shop in Starkville, is donating biscuits to go along with the free coffee and doughnuts.

It kicks off at 8 o’clock and lasts until 10 o’clock at Jugtown Grill in downtown Aberdeen Thursday morning.