By William Cramp Fit Flyer reporters | The No. 1 thing Steven Pickens says that communities can do to keep their neighborhoods safe is to avoid littering.

“Littering shows how you feel about yourself and others,” Mr. Pickens said.

“Just like you make things neat and tidy in your home, you carry those same values outside, to school,” he said. “You carry those same values in your community”

Mr. Pickens is the co-founder of Philly Truce, a Philadelphia organization that works to make the city a safer place to live. He recently visited with the Fit Flyer staff.

Philly Truce has created an app that anyone can use, including kids, to get help if they or someone they know is having an argument before it turns violent, according to Mr. Pickens.

When people work together to reduce crime, neighborhoods can become walkable communities, according to a report by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2015. The Surgeon General is considered the nation’s doctor and informs Americans about how to stay healthy and avoid injuries.

—By Fit Flyer reporters in Mrs. Morales’ room

Illustration by Chinwe, eighth grade, Catholic Partnership Schools, 2022–23.