Gainesville City Commission leads area’s first Gun Violence Prevention Summit
Press release from City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gainesville City Commission is taking a multi-phased approach to confront the community’s rising tide of gun violence. With nine firearm homicides in the city since July 1, 2022, commissioners led a two-day Gun Violence Prevention Summit. Titled, “Choose Peace: Gun Violence Must Cease,” the event drew an estimated 400 people to the Hilton UF Conference Center on August 6 and 7.
The summit was supported by the full city commission but arose from the staunch advocacy of Mayor Harvey L. Ward Jr. and District I Commissioner (Mayor Pro Tem) Desmon Duncan-Walker, who together anchored the two-day event.
Attendees worked to move the needle in the right direction and create a lasting collaboration to bring permanent and positive change. It comes after the Gainesville City Commission and the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners each passed resolutions declaring gun violence as a public health crisis in the community.
“We’ve all got to be in the trenches doing the work,” said Mayor Ward. “We have a part to play in this. It’s not just our public safety professionals. We all need to build that framework, build networks that rely on each other, and we’re here to do that.”
Each day centered on a different approach. “Community Day” included workshops on violence intervention, social media and mental health, and youth and hip-hop culture. The day’s culminating event, a youth town hall sponsored by the Children’s Trust of Alachua County, focused on the role of drill music, a popular rap genre, and provided attendees an opportunity to share their stories.
“This music gives young people a chance to feel expressed, accepted, a part of things. But that’s not always good. There’s peer pressure that comes with it, too,” said Jacoby Jenkins, one of the youth panelists.
Commissioner Duncan-Walker, who moderated the town hall, developed it with the intent of hearing directly from the summit’s young attendees. “Centering youth voices is critical because I believe the children will bring us solutions. They are indeed the future, and my goal is to help them express themselves here so we can listen and learn.”
“Policy Day” discussions on governance and practices included elected officials, educators and school administrators, business and civic leaders, and representatives from public health, local government, public safety, and the judicial system.
Ariel Cathcart, manager of Mayoral Outreach from the nation’s largest gun violence prevention organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, delivered the keynote address.
Policy Day also featured an innovative approach to policymaking led by Gainesville Community Health Director Brandy Stone, MPH, CPH. Repurposing the traditional tabletop exercise — a foundational element of public safety preparedness — she guided participants through a series of increasingly complex health and social challenges similar to those that can underlie gun violence in a community.
“The analogy I like to use is pulling people from a river. You can stay downstream and save them one at a time as they struggle past, and that will work for a while. But eventually you learn, and you go to where the river starts and change all your efforts so you can prevent them from falling into the water in the first place,” explained Stone.
Policy Day concluded with a discussion of next steps. Mayor Ward, along with Bishop Christopher Stokes of Micanopy’s Willie Mae Stokes Community Center and Jeffrey Weisberg of the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, led the conversation, “What is mine to do?” Those present agreed to continue the dialogue while developing action items in the realms of public safety, support services, and policymaking. City and County leaders expect to address the issue further in future joint meetings.
Funding support for the summit came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Children’s Trust of Alachua County, Alachua County Public Schools, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and Coca-Cola Florida. More information about the 2023 Summit can be found through this link.
That gave me my dose of Gainesville PR drivel for the day.
Let’s see if they actually do anything related to law and order now. I don’t think they have a clue, still.
Did a single person talk about enforcing existing laws? Enforcing discipline in schools? teaching parents (especially single parents) and their children about respect and morals of society? Did they talk about wrist slapping, failure of the SA to prosecute or inappropriate too light punishment for gun crimes?
No, it was a political show, that, only they wanted to talk about 🤷♀️, but So at least they start something And I hope they don’t just stuck in the middle and back up this is not an easy task, and it is a long way to go, but if they don’t address the actual problem the roots needs to be fixed, and it has to be honesty to the problem otherwise won’t take them nowhere🙏 And is still they have to get to the bottom of the problem of my son’s murder case so if they don’t take care of the victims of the violence and their mistakes, they have to show their responsibility and accountability first if they don’t it is a bad example🤷♀️To begin anything🤷♀️
Its a JOKE, discipline is what is needed. In school starting early having children respect teachers. Hold parents accountable. Start having parents pay retribution. Because all this was, was a SHOW. And young kids are going to continue to be killed.
When will the meeting minutes be ready? I can’t wait to use key word searches.
Ward, Duncan-Walker & the commission have now got the TALKING part done- now let’s see them out Downtown at 2am on Fri & Sat nights, putting all this lip-service into action. Let’s see how well that works out for them…
The “violence interruptors” can also escort them around the areas these shootings keep happening & let them use their newfound wisdom to prevent all the shootings.
We’ll be checking the stats, Harvey!
SMH…
“Repurposing the traditional tabletop exercise — a foundational element of public safety preparedness — ” Huh??? Argle bargle on display.
Every town for gun safety. We’ll, ole George Soros helped fund that one yet is not listed on the sponsor page.
An absolute waste of tax payers money. I do not wish violence on any city, so let’s see how many gun related calls GPD has this coming weekend.
Don’t be surprised if they try to hide any gun violence reports. It’s happened before.
The key point is, and leadership has been hesitant and often times unwilling to admit or accept is as Stone explained,…”eventually you learn, and you go to where the river starts and change all your efforts so you can prevent them from falling into the water in the first place.” Part of the problem is this group hasn’t learned. Are they incapable or just unwilling?
Let’s see how many are willing to do just that instead of staying “downriver” and out of harm’s way, hoping that a few are able to survive the rapids. We didn’t throw them into the river but I for one am not willing to drown myself or my family to help those who don’t do much to or want to help themselves.
When they hold these meetings on the eastside at 2:30 am on so called ‘peaceful Sundays’ I’ll see some true effort. P.S. might want to break out your body armor if you plan to attend.
A lot of word salad about feelings and understanding juveniles and young people. They actually have classes on being a Dad because people have no moral compass and never listened to parents. There are far more traffic related injuries and deaths in Alachua County then gun deaths. I dont see summits on reduction or people calling to ban vehicles in Alachua County. You still see people racing cars in the street. I don’t see the School Board having special classes on how to survive walking to school and avoid being run over. You have a better chance of being injuried or killed riding a bike or walking across a street then shot in Alachua County.
We would be much better off if ward’s fat butt was in the trenches instead of the trough. If only.
This is the third leg of the CDC’s public health crisis response…a veiled attempt to wag the dog from DC. The three pillars are vaccines, gun control and climate change. All funding comes from the feds and the CDC is the prime agency behind these public health crisis responses. Congress is currently bickering back and forth over the CDC’s funding for these issues. The CDC is nothing more than an over politicized agency vying for more control. Expect ongoing ‘atrocities’ being blamed on guns, climate change and those evil viruses
Like everything else these days, this political maneuver was coordinate from above…don’t be naive and believe this is organic!
‘A public health crisis’: Mayor Ward explains goals for upcoming Gun Violence Prevention Summit
https://www.wcjb.com/2023/08/02/public-health-crisis-mayor-ward-explains-goals-upcoming-gun-violence-prevention-summit/
It appears no ‘violent guns’ were encountered during the summit so does that count as a success? Well….I guess we’ll soon enough know as ‘peaceful Sunday’ will soon be here again.
Well at least they started something,hopefully will work 🙏
What did this summit cost the taxpayers?
Life is Worth more than money let’s be positive and hope for them to succeed and stop gun violence and other issues as a long way to go yes of course. you don’t want it to happen for you, God, forbid to understand.