ONE Lexington: Staying the course on preventative work is key to reducing gun violence

LEXINGTON, KY. (LEX NEWS) — Lexington leaders say the city has made progress in reducing gun violence — but there is still a lot of work to be done.

One Lexington Director Devine Carama said that while this year has seen an extended spike in violence, including an incident that drew national attention, the numbers remain down compared to last year and the city's four-year average.

"A lot of times whenever we have these spikes, and we do every year, some are a little bit worse than others, obviously this year has been a little bit more extended and then we had, you know, an incident that made national news, but we're still down compared not only to last year but even our 4 year average," Carama said.

Carama credited years of behind-the-scenes work for the progress the city has seen and urged leaders not to abandon what has been working.

"It's quite a bit of work that's been happening in the last 4 or 5 years that's kinda led to a downward trend in gun violence and so my message to people is let's not reinvent, let's not panic and blow everything up, let's continue to do what we've been doing has led to the progress that we've seen," Carama said.

"So part of that is putting structures in place to prevent violence before it happens," Carama said.

With the Roots and Heritage Festival taking place this weekend, Carama said Youth Peacekeepers will once again be on the ground to connect with young people and mediate potential conflicts before they escalate.

"For the last I think 4 years, a group of us go to Roots and Heritage Festival and we kind of mingle, we kinda connect with the young people at the late night hours of Friday and Saturday, just to be a presence, build connection and relationship with them, but most importantly, in case anything is festering, in case anything is starting to pop up, any conflicts, we can kinda mediate those before they escalate into something more serious," Carama said.

Carama said the preventative work also extends into schools, where One Lexington runs an in-school mentoring program in more than 20 locations across the city.

"We started our It Takes a Village in school mentoring program and so we're in over 20 schools and we got weekly mentoring groups, and that's another example of the preventative work, utilizing markers of those young people that are susceptible to that cycle of gun violence and then pulling them into a mentoring group every week and pouring into them and also talking about stuff like conflict resolution, mindfulness, untreated trauma, in hopes that it keeps them from entering into that cycle of violence," Carama said.

Carama also had a message for young people who may be struggling.

"It's OK to not be OK, it's OK to be hurting, and that you're not in this by yourself. When we say it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a village to lose one, and so when you've lost somebody that you love, when you're feeling hurt and pain, you don't have to navigate that on your own. It's people like us, it's people like our community partners that are here for you," Carama said.

Anyone who needs help can reach Carama by email at dcarama@lexingtonky.gov or social media.

Ana Medina is committed to covering stories in your community that matter to you. If you have an idea, reach out to her at ana.medina@wlex.tv