Police Outreach
Advocate.
Facilitator.
Peacemaker.
In the more than two decades Linda Rawley has served the community through the Wilmington Police Department, she has been all of those things and more.
Her latest effort focuses on at-risk girls ages twelve to eighteen through U-Turn, a program of WPD.
“I am hoping that girls will understand that they can do anything they put their mind to; regardless of what challenges arise, they can be successful,” Rawley says. “They don’t have to make poor choices. They don’t have to follow a gang. They can make their own destiny, and that destiny can be great.”
Focusing on this age group, Rawley is spearheading Port City Super Girls 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. January 30. The event takes place at Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station. It will involve regional businesses such as GE, AC Moore, Atlantic Therapeutic, and WILMA magazine. Agencies such as the U.S. Marine Corps and National Weather Service also will have activities. The free event is designed to present girls with possibilities, career choices, empowerment, and encouragement, according to organizers.
The theme is “Lead Like A Girl.” Speakers include three successful young women, ages eighteen to twenty-two. They will speak to the attendees about the dreams they have and the hard choices they have made to pursue those dreams, Rawley said.
Rawley came to WPD in 1990 following a stint at WWAY. A graduate of University of North Carolina Wilmington, originally from Goldsboro, she married following graduation and stayed in the community to raise her two daughters.
When the police department’s public information officer job came open in 1990, she applied.
“When I came onto the agency, there were a lot of community issues, a lot of police/community relations challenges. We had several deaths at the hands of police officers and a lot of tension. Because of my work in the media, I had made a lot of friends in the department and knew there were a lot of good officers. I’m kind of a peacemaker, so I pursued the job,” Rawley recalls.
She left the department in 2006 to pursue other interests but returned in 2010 to work on a grant related to gang activity prevention. She returned to the public information officer position when Lucy Crockett retired from it in 2013.
Working as a community resource coordinator, she realized there were gaps in the outreach effort designed to stem gang activity.
When speaking with young people, “The first thing they would tell me is ‘Nobody’s listening. If somebody would just listen to me and help me, I could get on the right course,’” she says.
There were, she says, also professionals who were willing to step up and help.
The department put together a program that paired professionals with at-risk youth and adults, often people who were already in gangs or had been to prison. They would have scheduled hour-long open conversations.
“They were a huge success,” Rawley says.
They also brought in people as speakers who had formerly been in the at-risk category but had made the critical decisions they needed to and were currently successful.
As successful as the events were, Rawley and others realized they were not reaching at-risk girls.
The hope is that these targeted events, along with the efforts of the gang specialist who works in elementary schools and the Police Activities League, will make a difference in the community.
For more information on the Police Activities League, contact Officer Debra Wilson at 520-3852.
Rawley says she hopes to have other activities and Super Girl events throughout the year.
“We’re always looking for innovative ideas and projects,” she says.
