National organization aids in reduction of youth homicides

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A troubling trend is hitting nationwide and here in Lexington. Youth violence is continuing to rise with five of the city’s homicide victims this year being kids 18 or younger.

Devine Carama, Director of One Lexington, works on the frontlines with kids here. While there are some programs in place like Safety Net and One Lexington, Carama thinks it’s time the city does more.

“The faith community’s done their thing, education’s done their thing, community activists have been separate doing their different things of expertise,” says Carama. “But I think we’re reaching violence at levels that are gonna require all of us to come together and I think we need a little help learning how to do that.”

So, the city is looking for help outside of Lexington. $100,000 was spent to contract with Cities United, a Louisville-based organization focused on reducing homicides among young black men. Cities United will work with Lexington to create a plan to prevent youth violence. Short-term and long-term plans will be drafted next week in meetings between the city and Cities United.

“We really wanna come in and get an assessment of where Lexington is and work with some of the parent partners at the table like One Lexington and other things that they have going on and really just get a sense of what Lexington needs before we come in with really solid ideas,” says Anthony Smith, Executive Director for Cities United.

Carama and Smith both say the violence Lexington is seeing will not be a quick fix. They want to get to the root of the problem and work towards prevention instead of just intervention. Everyone is hopeful that real change will come about through this partnership before anyone else dies.