While Lexington is one of the safest cities in the nation, we ourselves have seen a rise in violent crime; especially among our youth and young adults, creating a need for increased intervention and coordination to verify where gaps in our services may exist.
That is why we created the ONE Lexington initiative in the summer of 2017 to coordinate all our activities addressing violent crime – inside city government, and outside, with our public and private partners. To tackle these issues, we understand that the City can’t solve these problems alone. This work calls for our faith and non-profit communities, schools, neighborhood leaders, along with our city government partners to wrap all our arms, hearts, and resources around these issues to make a difference.
Mission
To coordinate, leverage and mobilize city government and community resources to reduce gun violence with youth and young adults ages 13 – 29 in the city of Lexington.
Vision
Making Lexington a safer city by reducing gun violence among youth and young adults. Using community-based intervention strategies to combat gun violence, while simultaneously addressing systemic disparities that lead to the root causes of gun violence.
Initiatives
We have created initiatives for youth and young adults to participate in.
Take a comprehensive look at ONE Lexington’s community approach to reducing gun violence
Read the full three-part article. Part one, part two and part three.
Cure Violence Model: The ONE Lexington Gun Violence Reduction Strategy combines our strategic planning sessions led by local agencies and individuals affected by gun violence and the national violence prevention model, Cure Violence (CV). CV seeks to create individual-level and community-level change in communities where it is a norm for young people to carry a gun and—for some—to use a gun to settle various forms of conflict. The CV model attempts to stop the transmission of violence, like that of public health interventions designed to curtail epidemics or to reduce the impact of harmful behavior such as smoking and overeating. The CV model identifies those most at risk of spreading gun violence and intervenes to change their behavior and attitudes. Next, it tries to demonstrate to those individuals and the broader community that there are more acceptable and less harmful ways to resolve personal conflicts and disputes.
P.I.E.R. Approach to Enhancing Safety & Quality of Life
Using a public health approach to violence prevention, ONE Lexington and its community partners use the P.I.E.R. strategy to guide our work of reducing gun violence among youth and young adults in Lexington. Our partners include neighbors and leaders representing the education, social services, justice, law enforcement, faith and health sectors.
Prevention – Focusing on the root causes that lead to gun violence, changing social norms, and advocating for policies that make our neighborhoods safer.
Intervention – Supporting individuals, families, and neighborhoods who have been affected by gun violence.
Enforcement – Closing the trust gap between under-served communities and public safety.
Re-entry – Assisting incarcerated youth and young adults with successful transition to the community upon release as well as providing alternative sentencing opportunities.
Community feedback
Submit your information and include ways that you and/or your organization is willing to help through mentoring youth, mentoring incarcerated youth or young adults, leading after-school programs, providing transportation for youth and young adults to get to and from needed services, contributing financially to support neighborhood-specific programs and services, and more.
Youth Voices of Lexington
Episode 4 – East End