Main by instance. Establishing fashions. Reworking sorrow into success.
These are rules that Pastor Jay Gooding, Sr., 63, abides by. His perseverance comes from turning emotional ache into function, bettering the standard of life for everybody locally.
“I wish to see gun violence eradicated,” Gooding mentioned. “My essential function proper now’s coping with that … when a husband loses a spouse he’s referred to as a widower. When a spouse loses her husband, she’s a widow. Youngsters that lose their dad and mom are referred to as orphans. However there’s no title for when a dad or mum loses a baby. You may’t discover it within the dictionary. … due to that ache, it turned my ache into function.”
For the previous 28 years, Gooding has been a pillar of dedication and volunteerism. Along with serving because the non secular chief of the Fellowship Tabernacle in Williamsbridge and the Miracle Revival Temple in Mount Eden, Gooding has devoted his life to combating gun violence, selling peace, and bettering neighborhoods by way of “out of doors crusades,” which supplies meals pantries, facilitates garments donations, and distributes bibles to all that want to obtain the phrase of Christ. Past the boundaries of his church buildings, Gooding’s work reaches far into Bronx neighborhoods the place his presence is revered and transformative.
“My religion is all the pieces. I’m a agency believer that religion with out works is lifeless. That’s the biblical scripture,” Gooding mentioned. “Every little thing I do is thru religion and my perception in God. It’s in my private life and positively in my skilled life. We stroll by religion and never by sight.”
Gooding’s involvement with Jacobi Medical Heart’s anti-violence program, Stand As much as Violence (SUTV), is the cornerstone of his neighborhood service. In early 2014, Sen. Jeff Klein, together with different authorities officers, medical consultants, spiritual leaders, and neighborhood advocates, launched a venture, generally known as SNUG (weapons spelled backward). Each time there’s a taking pictures, SNUG’s aim is to cease retaliatory violence through the use of its educated personnel to arbitrate disputes. Gooding performs a vital half in advocating for peace and calling for an finish to the bloodshed by organizing rallies inside 72 hours following incidents of gun violence. His management has elevated this system’s affect by offering numerous others with hope and therapeutic.
“We do an annual peace stroll throughout Gun Violence Consciousness Month,” Gooding mentioned. “We simply had our eleventh ‘Peace Stroll’ this previous Thursday [Jun. 12]. We noticed the necessity [for the SUTV program] as a result of, I used to be already doing eulogies and funerals and so seeing the necessity of moms is why I used to be so involved with dropping our youth, and even now we see a 194% improve during the last three years in taking pictures victims which can be coming by way of Jacobi Hospital, which is now the main explanation for dying within the America, particularly within the Black and Brown neighborhood. [The leading cause of death] for infants have been automobile accidents, however now it’s gun violence.”
Gooding’s dedication to lowering gun violence has additionally been evident by way of his church buildings’ participation within the Bronx’s gun buyback initiatives. In 2009, Miracle Revival Temple partnered with the Bronx District Lawyer’s Workplace and the New York Police Division as one of many six venues for the preliminary Gun buyback program. In 2016, Fellowship Tabernacle hosted one other occasion the place 99 firearms have been surrendered. These packages, geared toward lowering the prevalence of unlawful firearms on Bronx streets, are an extension of Gooding’s imaginative and prescient for a safer and extra harmonious neighborhood.
“We now have seen in our catchment areas, and the place we’re positioned proper now, the forty ninth, forty seventh, and the forty third Precincts [New York Police Department]. We now have seen a lower in our catchment areas during the last 11 years of fifty% in these catchment areas,” Gooding mentioned. “The lower in taking pictures is what our group does. We now have what we name outreach employees or violence interrupters, and we work out of our base in Jacobi Hospital. When there’s a taking pictures sufferer that involves the hospital, we now have a few of our hospital responders or violence interrupters make it possible for they attempt to speak right down to the chums that’s coming in, that there can be no retaliatory shootings. That’s the explanation that we now have seen statistics that the police gained’t present, however we’re seeing in our catchment areas of fifty%.”
Gooding’s dedication to neighborhood service goes far past his anti-violence advocacy. He has held quite a few management positions that underscore his dedication to public welfare, together with serving as president of the forty ninth Precinct Clergy Council and as a member of the manager board of the forty fourth Precinct Clergy Coalition from 2002 to 2008. Moreover, he’s an govt with Chaplains Serving to in Police Conditions (C.H.I.P.S.). His efforts have garnered vital recognition, together with the forty ninth Precinct Neighborhood Council’s Tom Twyman Citizen of the 12 months Award in 2009 and the NYPD Partnership within the Neighborhood Award in 2013.
“For me, as an individual, as a father, as a grandfather, as a husband, I simply wish to see folks reworking their very own lives [for the better],” Gooding mentioned. “I had 4 youngsters. I’ve three sons; my daughter Latiesha is deceased. She died in 2020 from an unintended overdose. My spouse Nicole Stacey Ann Gooding of 37 years, we only recently celebrated our thirty seventh wedding ceremony anniversary. She has the ministry of well being. My child son performs the organ for our ministry. His title is Jayme Gooding. There’s Jay Jr., he has his personal church. My center son performs the drums for me. His title is Vaughn.”
Gooding’s work from combating violence to supporting households and neighborhoods, has left an indelible mark on the Bronx. His efforts proceed to encourage others to domesticate peace, hope, and unity in a world usually fraught with challenges. By his dedication to service, Gooding has constructed bridges between regulation enforcement, neighborhood members and faith-based organizations, proving that collaboration and compassion can create lasting change.
“All of it begins within the house, and I feel we’ve misplaced that management,” Gooding mentioned. “I feel dad and mom have misplaced that management of their house. My father used to inform us, ‘Say one thing and I’ll depart it at these three locations the place kids are going to study.’ To start with, the house, [then] the college, and the church. I feel through the years now we’ve misplaced that management of that respect in all three facets. If kids should not going to respect their dad and mom, they’re not going to respect anybody else. I feel that’s been the most important breakdown. If we will attempt to assist dad and mom, even within the rearing of their kids, I feel that may be an important factor as we commemorate Gun Violence Consciousness Month.”
