"It changed a lot," Jenkins said. "I'm from the Braggtown area ... we hear gunshots every day."
Jenkins was one of the dozens of community members who attended the Durham County Main Library on Wednesday to learn more about how to build safer communities, as part of a joint effort between the City of Durham and Durham County to ultimately create a "Violence Reduction Plan."
For the next three months, there will be a series of educational sessions featuring national experts and advocates who will share how some strategies have been successful in reducing violence in the U.S.
Some of the participating jurisdictions are Tennessee, Missouri and Massachusetts, according to the Violence Reduction Center.
So far this year, there have been nearly 400 mass shootings nationwide, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The impacts are felt at home in the Bull City, where community advocate Bishop Herbert Davis said gun violence is still a major issue in the community that he hopes is better addressed.
"I really hope that the community comes into it with as open of a mind as possible," Bishop Davis said. "There is enough finger-pointing. There could be blame placed in various ways in various places. But can we come together and have the common idea that, hey, we really want to address this?"
Phase one of the Violence Reduction Planning Process kicked off in December.
The timeline includes learning sessions until March, community workshops starting in February and a multi-day summit in the Spring, where leaders hope to see specific strategies tailored to Durham.
"We have an opportunity to get an actual framework," Durham County Board Chair Dr. Mike Lee said.
"People with lived experience. People who have different ideas to come together and see what we can do as a county."