Shootings, murders decreasing among youth, according to city

ONE Lexington intentionally focusing on youth gun violence prevention

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – This week alone, two kids were hurt in shootings in Lexington. Despite this, the city says the number of shootings and homicides between 13 to 29-year-olds is trending down.

Since it started just over a year ago, ONE Lexington has focused heavily on this age range providing mentorship and mediation to help prevent gun violence.

“Violence disruption from the root level is a big part of what we do,” says ONE Lexington Director Devine Carama.

Many people in the Lexington area have been honing in on gun violence and public safety lately. Some people calling for the instillation of the nationally-used program GVI. Carama says his organization also follows a plan that’s nationally vetted, known as community violence intervention. Carama says community violence intervention groups support local police but don’t take an active role in the policing.

“Violence intervention is good work, it’s important work but that happens after the gunshot,” says Carama. “But what are we doing before somebody’s shot? Before someone equals or enters a cycle of violence? Before somebody retaliates?”

Carama says ONE Lexington’s focus is on prevention, so that gives it the flexibility to work with much younger people. He says the violence surge nationwide is part of a perfect storm- for two years people weren’t able to handle problems face-to-face because of COVID and then the world reopened, now, with rising costs of living.

“There’s so many more guns on the street, it’s so easy to get a firearm. You know, I work with a lot of young people and they say ‘I can get a firearm easier than I can get a job,'” says Carama.

According to ONE Lexington, youth gun violence is down over 50% from last year. Carama says he believes this decrease is because of the intentional focus being given to Lexington’s kids.

“ONE Lexington is really trying to step back and be less programmatic and really figure out ways we can amplify those that are already on the ground,” says Carama. “Our two biggest things we got coming up this fall is we got two big grant programs that will help to amplify and support other violence intervention organizations that are on the ground every day doing the work.”

In response to the recent shootings, ONE Lexington says there’s going to be a ‘Stop the Violence Prayer Vigil’ on September 19th at 6 P.M. in front of the courthouse downtown.

You can keep up with what ONE Lexington is doing on its Facebook page linked HERE.