NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The beef between young men in Southside Norfolk and those who live in Huntersville went live on Facebook in July 2016. A few young men were smoking while listening to music in their car when someone opened fire. The story on the live Facebook shooting was read and viewed across the country. The men who were shot that day survived, but as the beef continued, several other victims did not.

John Paige, a bail bondsman, is the city councilman for Norfolk’s 4th Ward. The Facebook shooting happened before he entered politics.

“So I’ve been impacted by both sides of that,” Paige said in an interview just outside the Norfolk Jail and City Hall, “and that’s what’s happening in our community. You know, we look at it, the sadness of life being lost and someone going to jail for it, the actual crime, and the times that we’re in with our young people where no one is taking the time to talk, to hear them thinking that they are all just lost and misguided, when the reality is, they’re watching the media, to some of our young people, become dangerous because they believe that there’s no other choice.”

Many crimes that make the headlines, Paige said, are the long-haul effects of the 80’s era crack cocaine epidemic. The drug was so powerful, Paige said, that mothers would leave their children home alone to find the next dose of crack.

“So the mental health and the trauma that we’re dealing with in our community has not been addressed,” Paige said. “America watched and America responded to the pandemic, but we are people who have lived in an epidemic, and we continue to live in that [crack] epidemic.”

Paige has assembled a group of men from various backgrounds who are taking on the mission of rebuilding the village. The men of Iron Sharpens Iron know the games, old and new, that send young men and women behind bars or to their graves.

Malie Hansford grew up in the streets of Paterson, New Jersey.

“Well, I would like to say that I’ve experienced all the games old and new,” Hansford said. “I’m 57-years-old and I come from a community where I lived in the lifestyle of drugs and alcohol since I was at the age of eight. So, my experiences were able to lead me to a point that now, I’m recognizing what it is to be, in my definition, a man who is accountable and responsible for governing my life in a better direction.”

On the first day of Black History Month, Iron Sharpens Iron is hosting a call to action at the Chrysler Museum. Over the next few months, each one will teach one the basics such as common courtesies. Gregory Thomas is a veteran counselor who worked with prisoners at the Norfolk and Portsmouth jails.

“Greeting and acknowledging means once again to look at me in my eyes. Look at me in my eyes. Understand that’s what I bring,” Thomas said.

Barrett Hicks is the chairman of Iron Sharpens Iron.

“Well, a little bit about myself,” Hicks said. “I was born in Campostella and raised in [the Southside] Berkley. Over these last 20 years, it’s just been a magnitude of folks that we’ve saved. A big part of that comes from avenues or additional adult voices.”

Hicks added the mission is urgent and will require immediate action.