The Mark Barmore shooting which occured 2 1/2 months ago, is still fresh on the minds of many of us. Some community leaders are hoping to use the incident as a catalyst for helpful change, and they're starting that process today.

You may remember back on August 24th, Mark Barmore was shot and killed by two Rockford police officers in the basement of a church daycare. He was running from police. Using the philosophy of non-violent conflict resolution about 20 community leaders spending two days learning how to avoid the tensions that flared up after the Barmore shooting.

These folks want to bring positive changes from "the bottom - up" for Rockford. Samuel Sarpiya is a pastor at Rockford Community Church and organized the event. He says, “looking at the Barmore situation, and as a pastor in the city, i'm like, there's just got to be a way, and i just felt that it'd be good to convene a peace session whereby we begin to train ourselves on how do we deal with a situation like this."

If this approach and goal are soemthing with which you agree.... you are welcome attend the second day of talks tomorrow. Anyone can attend. It begins at 8AM in the Rockford Park District Board Room downtown.