|
Are You Focused On Youth? Get With Us! |
|
 If You Offer Youth Services, Programs or Goods, We Want to Help You Get the Word Out!
The Yes! Youth Engagement Services division at OSHN is on a mission: We invite ALL Louisville-associated, youth-focused services and organizations to register themselves on the developing YES! Direct, the city’s Amazon-like database of youth-focused services, products, organizations, and providers.
The directory is scheduled to launch this summer. Its purpose is to provide residents, youth, and their families, an accessible, easily navigated, one-stop, comprehensive database for anything and everything they need. Looking for a youth summer camp for special needs youth? The database will have it! Looking for a private, summer tutor? The database will have it! Looking for used school uniforms? The database will have it! Is a youth looking for a job? The database will have it!
Service providers can register four ways: At OSHN’s city website. Click the QR code. Email YES@louisvilleky.gov. Call 502-574-6884.
|
|
Information Related to Gun Violence |
|
Unveiling the Impact of Childhood Gun Violence in Louisville
Study Reveals Trauma's Profound Impact on Louisville's youth and Economy Amidst Rising Gun Violence Crisis. Urgent Need for Trauma-Informed Approaches and Community-Led Solutions to Safeguard City's Future.
|
|
 Keron Wakefield is a youth services coordinator in the YES! Youth Engagament Services division. His job is to ensure the division connects to credible, local youth-focused programs and businesses and to educate the public about the division and the importance of youth inclusion in all phases of society.
The Louisville native started his Louisville Metro career over 7 years ago when he was hired into the city’s Parks and Recreation Dept. “It was a part-time job. I basically helped to run programs and made sure the kids at the community center had what they needed regarding recreation equipment,” he said.
His love of working with and assisting youth from some of the city’s most disinvested neighborhoods drove him to want to develop a career centered on youth and service. He eventually rose to a management post in the Parks Dept.
“For the kids, I wanted to be the person that I needed when I was young,” he said. “I wanted to show them I am a person the kids could relate to and that I understood them.”
He said he worked directly with troubled youth who came to the center hungry or had no positive role mentor or and who were wrestling with complex social and personal issues at such young ages.
“Having a person just be there for them was important to them; they wanted a push into a good direction,” he said.
“I came to OSHN because I wanted to do more,” for youth. “Now I have a more direct effect,” because he works not just with youth, but also individuals and organizations that can bring positive change to them.
“In this job, my greatest challenge is getting the youth to understand how powerful their voice is.”
|
|
Barber Shop Talk
A different and new program under OSHN’s “Pivot to Peace” division is “Thoughts Out Loud.” Here, OSHN clients get a free haircut AND engage with barbers trained to talk with them about their challenges, issues, stress and trauma. Barber shop talk has its place, especially for youth and young men needing to just talk out their issues with a trusting being.
|
|
Mental well-being and spiritual deployments
Letting people know they are not alone can be fundamental to their mental and physical well-being as we all live through an epidemic of violence.
The actual occurrence of violence, even the possibility of it, has caused a measurable uptick of trauma, especially for those who routinely encounter violence because of where they live.
To help combat that dilemma, recently the Community Sanctuary Project (CSP) organized ministers and mental health professionals into the Parkland and Iroquois neighborhoods, two of Louisville’s most disinvested neighborhoods. The event offered those neighbors a place to find spiritual and mental well-being counseling.
CSP is programed under OSHN’s Trauma Resilient Communities division. It delivers spiritual and mental health assistance and champions harmony into a community that experiences secondary trauma caused by homicides there. “CSP brings an unconditional presence of love and support when it is needed most,” said Amber Burns-Jones, an assistant director at OSHN. “For many, just knowing others have compassion and understanding of your situation, can transform how someone handles and feels about their struggle and themselves,” she said.
|
|
Be the One to Make a Difference |
|
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!
OSHN’s Reimagine division is now just days away from closing applications for the 2024 Capacity Building Fellowship Grants. If you are involved in developing solutions to help reduce gun violence in Louisville, we want to help you build your ability to do that and more. APPLY NOW!
|
|
 Change Happens When People Get Involved
OSHN’s Reimagine Network is charged with ensuring that assistance and resources are available for concerned, engaged citizens involved in the fight against violence. The Reimagine Network is OSHN’s community mobilization division and is the city’s gateway for where civic-minded neighbors come together to share concerns, address problems, and then work TOGETHER as they take an active role against anything that brings violence to their neighborhood.
We need more citizens to get involved - NOW.
We encourage residents to join a coalition, especially those in the Shawnee, Parkhill, Smoketown, Russell, Newburg and Portland neighborhoods.
Coalitions are small groups of people with powerful reaches because they address issues and inequity through grassroots tactics, networking and ideas.
Such involvement is a strong, collective way to hold leaders accountable for community-driven change.
|
|
 Metro United Way and the LG&E KU Foundation are excited to announce our 2024 Beyond Buzzwords Speaker Series lineup. Please join us for our first virtual Beyond Buzzwords event featuring Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Cost Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together on Tuesday, February 6.
McGhee is a leading advocate for addressing inequality in America, renowned for her impactful career in public policy. As a legislative architect, she has testified before Congress and her influential book, "The Sum of Us," spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, earning praise from publications such the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and TIME Magazine.
Our next event will be Tuesday, June 4, featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award (2015). Coates is author to other bestselling books including The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and The Water Dancer. As a journalist with a career spanning over two decades, he’s written for numerous publications including The Washington City Paper, The Village Voice, The New Yorker and The New York Times and enjoyed a successful run writing Marvel’s Black Panther (2016-2021) and Captain America(2018-2021) comics series.
Our third event of 2024 will be on Tuesday, October 8, featuring Alejandra Campoverdi, author of First Gen. A nationally-recognized women’s health advocate, author, founder, producer, and former White House aide to President Obama. Alejandra produced and appeared in the groundbreaking PBS documentary Inheritance, and founded the LATINOS & BRCA awareness initiative in partnership with Penn Medicine’s Basser Center for BRCA.
Beyond Buzzwords is a Metro United Way speaker series on diversity, equity and inclusion that is designed to provide thoughtful and meaningful discussions about important topics that promote thinking as well as personal and institutional application. Please register for our upcoming events of the 2024 series below!
Thanks to the generous support from our Presenting Sponsor:
LG&E and KU Foundation
If you have any questions, please contact Taysha Farley at taysha.farley@metrounitedway.org or 502.292.6167
|
|
|
The Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods is always for looking community spaces to host our Ambassador Training and Network Nights events. If you know of a community space please email The Reimagine Network.
reimagine@louisvilleky.gov
|
|
 OSHN’s mission is to reduce the risk of violence in all of Louisville’s communities. If you have an event or festival that we can table and share what the city is doing to holistically reduce violence and how it affects you and our community - We Want to Come! Please fill out our tabling request form or go to the website at Office for Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods | LouisvilleKY.gov We’ll look forwarding to meeting you!
|
|
There is great work happening here in the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods, and most importantly, in our community. It is our goal to keep you engaged and co-leading our important work. Our vision for Louisville is a city of safe neighborhoods where everyone is supported, free of violence, and prepared for lifelong success. We can only achieve this together, so stay connected with our monthly newsletters, social media, and visit our website for more information and additional calls to action. |
 View any past OSHN Newsletter!
|
|
|
We would love your feedback. If you have questions or concerns regarding our newsletter, or have a related event that you would like to communicate with our networks, contact the Reimagine Network.
Take care of each other,
The Reimagine Network
|
|
Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods
908 W Broadway, 5th Floor, Louisville, KY 40203 | Phone: 502-574-6949
|
|
|
|
|
