By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

AVONDALE - A new door-to-door effort starts today to get residents more involved in keeping their neighborhood safe.

Volunteers from such groups as Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Avondale Community Council and the Avondale Business Association will start walking every block, surveying residents about their crime concerns.

They'll also urge people to get involved, direct them to city services they need, and suggest that they register to vote.

That kind of community involvement will translate into a safer neighborhood, said organizer Ozie Davis III.

It's the first big public project for Davis, a former Miami University football player who grew up in the neighborhood and moved back a decade ago. He started working in March with the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), the community agency working to redevelop Burnet Avenue.

"We're really up to bat now," Davis said, "and we're going to get out there and knock on doors. There are lots of strategies. But I think the best one is to get people involved in their own safekeeping."

At a training session Tuesday night for the volunteers who'll walk the Avondale streets, organizers decided to name the effort Avondale 360 degrees to symbolize a total turnaround they hope to bring to the neighborhood.

Organizers hope every house in Avondale - a town of 16,500 - will have been visited by the end of the fall. Davis said the goal is to develop block clubs on every street and appoint block captains who will work as liaisons between him and the community.

Ernest McAdams, chief city prosecutor, said he hoped the neighborhood walking project gets residents more involved in reporting such things as junk cars and blighted buildings.

"What we need," he said, "is for the neighbors to complain."

Related upcoming projects are:

• An anti-litter campaign.

• The Jay Street Market, a flea/farmer's market Aug. 28 in a parking lot near Burnet and Rockdale avenues that Davis said has been a long-time crime spot.

"We hope it works," Davis said. "I think we'll find out that people in Avondale really do care."

Volunteers will meet at 5:45 p.m. at the post office on Burnet Avenue and they'll walk until 8 p.m.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com