Neighborhoods across Montgomery to observe National Night Out to - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Nellie D. Graham has been working for years to clean up her neighborhood, Mobile Heights, off West Fairview Avenue and she couldn't be more proud of how far they've come.

"This is the way your neighborhood should look.  And so finally we got people on board, and they began to take pride in the neighborhood.  They began to clean in front of their curb."

But it's not just the look of the neighborhood that's changed.

"Working very closely with the neighborhood watch program coming through the police department has helped a whole lot.  It has deterred crime in this neighborhood and its not as bad as it used to be.  And neighbors are beginning to look out for one another."

Graham says they couldn't have turned their neighborhood around without the help of the city's BONDS program.  It offers all neighborhoods in Montgomery things like grants and leadership training as well as community police partnerships.  One of their biggest events of the year is the National Night Out Against Crime.

"It's a fun way to get to know your neighbors.  It's a fun way to share what's going on.  It also gives law enforcement the opportunity to come in, in a fun way.  Not responding to a call that you've made, but just to come out and say we're here and we're supporting the work that you're doing.  It gives them the opportunity to have an open exchange."

Regina Berry Meadows is the BONDS program director.  She says the event tonight will feature a parade of neighborhoods, a cake walk and a kids zone.  But more importantly, it's a time for neighbors to come together and make a stand against crime.

"It's just an effort for the communities to band together and show the criminal element that we are supporting each other  and looking for positive things in our community"

"This is a big step in the right direction, knowing that as we pull together as a team, it will make a better neighborhood.  We can bring revitalization back to our neighborhood again.  We can.  We can make it livable.  We can make it peaceful.  We can do that.  When we pull together as one with the police department and the city and the neighborhoods coming together as one."

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