JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Reverend Korey O\u2019Neal, a pastor at New Beginnings Outreach Ministries in Jacksonville\u2019s Springfield neighborhood, believes hope and change for kids in our community is an urgent need.<\/p>\n
He held a prayer vigil at Friendship Fountain on the Southbank, which was no coincidence, since two teens were shot there<\/a> during Jacksonville\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve celebration. It\u2019s also the same place where we told you last July the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office had to break up a crowd of 600-700 teens who had gathered there for a \u201cteen takeover\u201d event.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n We reported about a similar \u201cteen takeover\u201d over the weekend at the Avenues Mall,<\/a> which led to shots fired after a fight broke out between teens. This was less than a year after another \u201cteen takeover\u201d was reported at the Orange Park Mall,<\/a> which had to be broken up by Clay County deputies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a right now issue that needs to be addressed,\u201d said Reverend O\u2019Neal, \u201cwe want to reach our youth before they make a decision that can drastically change the rest of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n O\u2019Neal brought local faith leaders and families together for his prayer vigil, where he not only urged the teens who showed up to not only lean on the power of prayer, but called on parents and peers to do more in supporting their journey to adulthood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to show this love for them,\u201d said Gwendolyn Hansbery, who was at the vigil to pray for her 19-year-old grandson, \u201cthey may get off the path, but somewhere in this life I believe they\u2019ll come back. I believe they always hear our words.\u201d <\/p>\n Of the shootings we\u2019ve reported to you since 2023, one out of every 14 have involved teens.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n The Florida Department of Corrections has reported a rising number of teens being admitted to prison over the last 26 years. In a recent report, the department said teens made up 12% of the state\u2019s prison population.<\/p>\n Reverend O\u2019Neal said he has a goal of recruiting 500 mentors to help at-risk teens by mid-April. If you\u2019re interested in supporting the effort or getting involved, you can click here.<\/a> The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, this week,<\/a> said it is working to address \u201cteen takeovers\u201d by getting its Intelligence Unit involved, working to be present at the events to prevent violence from breaking out.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Reverend Korey O\u2019Neal, a pastor at New Beginnings Outreach Ministries in Jacksonville\u2019s Springfield neighborhood, believes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15525,19396,9286,7840,77599,14359,14357,3061,67981,17782,9287,77600,969,77598,116,118,117,6458,31869,1872,634,50987,77601,49220,3760,77602,7842],"class_list":{"0":"post-162108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-avenues_mall","9":"tag-ax_news","10":"tag-ben","11":"tag-ben_becker","12":"tag-corey_oneill","13":"tag-finn","14":"tag-finn_carlin","15":"tag-florida_department_of_corrections","16":"tag-fountain","17":"tag-friendship","18":"tag-friendship_fountain","19":"tag-gwendolyn_hansberry","20":"tag-jack","21":"tag-jackson_finn_carlin","22":"tag-jacksonville","23":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","24":"tag-jacksonville-news","25":"tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","26":"tag-jesus","27":"tag-jso","28":"tag-local","29":"tag-new_years_eve","30":"tag-oneill","31":"tag-oneal","32":"tag-reverend","33":"tag-reverend_oneal","34":"tag-tanika_hughes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}