Peoria residents are slowly reclaiming their neighborhoods...replacing bad elements with positive change. Last week a 16–year–old and a 7–year–old were shot in the 17–hundred block of Blaine and Millman. Wednesday, three blocks away, a group of residents formed a neighborhood association.

Jill Long formed the Smith Street Guardians, because she's had enough. Long said, "There were several things that happened at my house over the years, I had a break in then I had a guy jump through my window but the last straw was when my daughter's basketball pole got stolen."

Smith Street Resident Georgia Johnson said, "We're together on this because there's so much going on in this neighborhood that we want everybody that lives down here on this block to cooperate with us and we could watch each other's back."

Northeast of Smith Street, here on the corner of California and Illinois, this neighborhood association officially unveiled its pocket park.

East Bluff United Neighborhood Assoc. President, Martin Palmer said, "One step at a time, we're going to take back the neighborhood and the residents can look to this as another step in the right direction versus another empty lot full of weeds and liter and trash and stuff like that."

Jennifer Levin says seeing people in this park, enjoying her neighborhood, makes her proud. "To see people from OSF coming over on their lunch break and just to see people using it, it really makes it worth it for us."

Organizers say this is just the start for the pocket park...the neighborhood association hopes to add a shelter and keep adding new details to their green space.