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Louisville’s National Youth Violence Prevention Week!
The Louisville Metro Youth Cabinet (MYC) acts as a youth advisory body for city officials to understand local youth needs, ideas, and recommendations. During the last week in March, the cabinet will work to raise awareness of youth issues and help other local youth take a stand against violence. A large community effort that will help them achieve these objectives is the 2024 National Youth Violence Prevention Week, March 23 to 30. Each day will highlight a free community event developed to offer youth and their families a week of togetherness, deep discussions, and awareness.
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2024 NYVPW Event Details:
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Zion’s Desk
Zion Smith is an inaugural member of the Louisville Metro Youth Cabinet (MYC) and represents District 15. That is history, but there’s more. He is the first cabinet member given workspace inside his district’s city hall office.
He says District 15 Metro Council Member Jennifer Chappell gave him a desk in her office to help him communicate directly with her and enable him with space to conduct business as the youth representative of District 15.
“Council Member Chappell has really created a great opportunity for all youth voice inclusion at city hall,” said Zion. “She’s young herself and this is her first term. So, I’m grateful that she gets it and will help.”
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AMPLIFY 502 Youth!
The Louisville Metro Youth Cabinet (MYC) has closed nominations for the AMPLIFY 502 initiative.
Youth aged 13-24 were nominated from all parts of Jefferson County. Those nominated will now be celebrated at a community event in the Spring. This initiative was a collaboration between the MYC and private citizens Jim and Claudette Patton. Based on early life experiences, Claudette Patton, a local attorney, wanted to encourage and celebrate the achievements of local youths challenged by tremendous burdens. “Life for many of Jefferson County's youth is not idealistic. Many are waging through circumstances that have been unfairly thrown at them, “ said Carla Kirby, assistant director at OSHN. “These kids are not forgotten. We want to recognize them, nurture them and help them move forward.”
Nominees will be exposed to mentoring, leadership and life training and even placed on track to receive federal congressional recognitions.
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Listening is Powerful
The Trauma Resilient Communities division at OSHN held a “listening” session with many of Louisville’s victims of gun violence. These victims are the very people either physically harmed by violence or they are family members left to handle the personal and devastating remnants of gun violence. OSHN works directly with victims of violence. So, these sessions help OSHN gain clarity, focus and greater efficiency as victims share the complexities of their experiences.
The most recent was last month at the Louisville Botanical Gardens. In attendance was a sizable representation of community and government members and victims, all engaging with one another about service gaps, new perspectives, and outcomes. “There is a high value in listening to community voices,” said Amber Burns-Jones, assistant director at OSHN. “Creating a safer community starts with listening to the wisdom of the people.”
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Helping neighborhoods turn their needs and ideas into reality is Carrington Malone’s key job function as a project specialist with the Reimagine Network division. The division is tasked to handle community mobilization initiatives at OSHN, meaning it is a gateway where civic-minded residents come together to share values and address large and small neighborhood issues to reduce violence.
Carrington meets regularly with residents and community partner organizations to help centralize their discussions and ideas and then helps them find ways to get solutions started.
“I got into this work because I want to help make the community a better place,” said Carrington, a Louisville native. “I see a lot of inequities for Black and Brown people caused by economics and opportunity. I just want to help gap that.”
She came to OSHN after working as a camp counselor with the local “I’d Rather Be Reading/Evolve 502” programs. She interned at the local Family Health Centers teaching residents to gauge their own blood pressure and she helped with social media.
“I’ve enjoyed my jobs. The biggest challenge for me at OSHN is making people understand the collective work of our anti-violence coalitions; that they get things done going through the coalitions.”
For the future, Carrington is taking professional voice lessons to improve her singing abilities. “I really love music. Maybe one day I can perform,” for people. “Or, I’d love to open a nonprofit that bridges the gaps for youth for what they don’t get at home.”
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Violence Reduction in the Community |
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Newburg Neighborhood Will Pilot an Innovative, Comprehensive Reduction Plan
The Office for Safe and Health Neighborhoods (OSHN) has been awarded $2 million from the Dept. of Justice to establish a neighborhood specific strategy to intervene gun violence in Newburg that will also expand or support other city gun violence strategies.
“The Newburg Gun Violence Reduction Project” is a pilot that will work to strengthen the city’s intervention/prevention strategy on the neighborhood level.
“This pilot will give us valuable insight into the needs of a specific geographical area,” said Paul Callanan, director of OSHN. “This is grassroots. It will help us discover how well all stakeholders work collectively as we use Newburg’s social dynamic and neighborhood characteristics.”
In addition, the grant will support professional mediation training for 75 outreach workers, the hiring of one an additional outreach case coordinator and a Newburg neighborhood-specific manager. An “interrupters” site will also be opened. Violence interrupters are credible individuals with deep neighborhood connections and whose job is to canvas and “disrupt” violence when possible.
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BE THE ONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE |
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Secure Gun Storage Saves Kids Lives
The Be SMART campaign was launched in 2015 to promote responsible gun ownership in order to reduce child gun deaths. Whether you’re a gun owner, or you know someone who owns a gun, there is a role for everyone in the conversation around secure gun storage. Be SMART is a framework that parents, caretakers, and community leaders can follow to help keep their communities safe. Ultimately, you can help prevent kids from accessing firearms by storing them securely, and encouraging others to do the same. Because children deserve to feel safe, no matter where they are. Learn more here: BeSmartforKids.org
See the Statistics:
for unintentional shootings: #NotAnAccident map
gunfire on school grounds: shootings on school grounds
gun suicide by congressional district: gun suicides
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Louisville to receive $12 million in federal funding for local projects
Louisville will receive more than $12 million in federal funding for local projects, announced by U.S. Congressman Morgan McGarvey on Saturday.
The Community Project Funding was part of six government funding bills passed by Congress. According to a news release, McGarvey, a Democrat, has secured more than half a billion dollars in federal funding for the state's Third Congressional District.
McGarvey (KY-03) said the funding will upgrade streets, support economic development, help children in neighborhoods and improve public safety.
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Today, Mayor Craig Greenberg and the University of Louisville released The History of Policing in Louisville: A Fact-Finding Report on Institutional Harms, commissioned by the Mayor’s Office of Equity. The Mayor also shared plans for a future community engagement session around the report which will be announced in the coming weeks.
“To truly move forward and implement meaningful and lasting change, we must look at the history of Louisville’s police and learn from the mistakes made,” said Mayor Greenberg. “While this is a painful picture of the past, I believe it can help point us in the right direction for our future as we make LMPD the most trained, trusted and transparent police department in America.”
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The West End Opportunity Partnership is hosting community engagement sessions to gather feedback on the types of community and business development projects needed to grow and sustain our communities.
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Where Gun Violence is Happening in Our City |
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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
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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!
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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!
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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
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Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods
908 W Broadway, 5th Floor, Louisville, KY 40203 | Phone: 502-574-6949
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