How This Group Is Using Diaper Changes To Change How Firearms Are Stored
During SMART Week, the Jacksonville Moms Demand Action local group shares how it builds community connections while telling others about secure firearm storage.
August 26–30, 2024, marks the first annual SMART Week. This week is a time when we come together to spread the word on the critical importance of secure gun storage to prevent gun violence.
Each day, we’ll be sharing a blog post expanding on each letter of the “SMART” acronym:
- Secure
- Model
- Ask
- Recognize
- Tell
SMART Week is built on the foundation of the Be SMART public education program. Be SMART promotes secure gun storage as a means to prevent kids under 18 and other unauthorized users from accessing guns.
During the height of the pandemic, the Moms Demand Action local group in Jacksonville, Florida, was trying to get creative in how to tell their community about Be SMART.
In-person gatherings were on pause, and so were their usual forms of outreach. The group was doing Zoom presentations to local churches and community groups instead of their usual in-person connections. And they wanted to find ways to reach new people with the Be SMART message.
That’s when Shannon Beckham, the Jacksonville Moms Demand Action Local Group Be SMART Program Lead, got an idea.
Shannon had recently met Crystal Parks, the founder and president of the Diaper Bank for Northeast Florida. Parks founded the nonprofit in October 2019 and hosted her first community diaper drive in February 2020, just before pandemic lockdowns began in the U.S.
The Diaper Bank collects donations of diapers in all sizes and quantities. Once donated, they group them into packs of 25—the number the average family needs to cover the gap in a month. Those packs are then wrapped in clear plastic and given to families, many of whom came from across the (large) county to receive the diapers.
Shannon saw an opportunity to tell community members they hadn’t usually been reaching about how to Be SMART. As Shannon said, many new parents are told to lock up their bleach and other household chemicals to keep children from unintentionally accessing them, but parents are rarely told to secure their firearms for the same reason. The group wanted to change that.
Shannon asked Parks if the group could give postcards printed with secure storage information to the Diaper Bank to package with the diapers. Parks said yes, and the partnership began.
Four years later, the Jacksonville Moms Demand Action local group continues to partner with the Diaper Bank for Northeast Florida. The group organizes annual events for Wear Orange weekend that focus on spreading the word about gun violence prevention and on giving back to their community.
For the last two years, the Jacksonville local group has organized community diaper drives to benefit the Diaper Bank. These drives are a massive group effort led by Shannon. She coordinates with the Diaper Bank to collect the diaper donations, then counts them and delivers them to the bank. Jacksonville Moms Demand Action Local Group Lead Jean Francis works with the press to spread the word about their donation drives. And Community Outreach Lead Veronica reaches out to other community groups, asking for donations and identifying ways other groups can support their efforts—and vice versa.
Veronica says this authentic way of engaging in the community is what makes Moms Demand Action and the Be SMART program so unique. The group isn’t just parachuting into the community with a prescriptive message.
“That’s why, again, I started to follow them to see what they were doing and really reading about their information,” Veronica said. “They were very engaged with the community, and those are the kinds of things that matter. When you are giving great information on how to keep your families safe, it doesn’t matter who the hand is that’s giving the information. Because the objective is: These are things that we need to do to reduce gun violence in our homes and in our communities. And that’s why people receive them well when they come out.”
Now, as the Community Outreach Lead for the Jacksonville Moms Demand Action Local Group, Veronica works to spread the Be SMART message by engaging with community partners. She can tell them about the tangible ways the Florida State Moms Demand Action chapter invests in the Jacksonville area.
For Veronica, Shannon, and Jean, telling others about Be SMART starts with showing up and talking to their community. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and guardians all care about keeping kids safe. And sometimes, reaching them with a message about secure firearm storage starts with collecting donations for the Diaper Bank.