Lexington’s ‘Peacekeepers’ working to keep young people safe

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — For the past couple of years, One Lexington has been deploying adults around the community to places where kids and teenagers are known to hang out.

“We got a bunch of trained individuals, crisis response advocates, community members to come together and occupy downtown and engage some of the young people to kind of step on some of these conflicts while they were small before it escalated to gun violence,” One Lexington’s Devine Carama said.

He says they’re working to get ahead of gun violence before a gun is even involved.

For the past few weeks, Carama says the Peacekeepers have been at Skyzone. He says the trampoline park was having some issues with youth conflicts.

“We engaged, we talked, we jumped, we had fun, and there’s been no issues since,” he said. “I believe that’s the kind of preventative techniques that not just One Lexington, but all of our community partners can take.”

The Peacekeepers build trust and make sure they can be a positive light in young peoples’ lives.

“It’s not coming in an authoritative way, it is coming in a way that is to build a relationship,” Carama said.

Ever since the start of the Peacekeepers, Carama says Lexington’s youth gun violence and homicide numbers have steadily decreased, but the mission hasn’t slowed down.

“We’re in our third year of a downward trend, not just homicides, but shootings,” he said. “It shows that collectively as a community that we’re making the right steps we’re going the right direction, but that work can never stop.”