 I have one change I'd like to suggest to the committee on the violations, municipal violations are limited to $500 and I would like to suggest that without objection if we could move the first offense to $100, second offense to $250, and the third offense to $500, the rest of the ordinance matches exactly the county's ordinance. Is that section 14108D, Mr. Chair? Yeah, 14108D. And you're suggesting $100 for first offense, $250 for second offense, and $500 for third offense. And I just want to ask this with clarity because we don't have authority over $500. Not for criminal penalties. This is civil. But I would recommend that we do adopt what our council is recommending. And I just wanted the record so it can be done with civil. But we're looking at a bit more. Keeping it in the lab with our $500 in it, even though it's a civil penalty rather than a criminal penalty. The change here would be to have 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. is the time that you cannot shoot the fireworks and then change it to 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. on July the 5th, which would be the night of July the 4th and January 1st. Without objection, we will report that back up to legal to make those changes and prepare for the agenda. What drafted this amendment to match the counties, the wording of the county is a little confusing to some Chief Jenkins pointed out because it leaves a gap between 10 and 1. It's not addressed. So I think if you all let legal try to make it a little more clear from the city side, it does match the county's language word for word. July 5th. Yeah, it prevents it normally, it tends to cut off, we change the cut off to 1, but the way this is worded, it leaves a gap between 10 and 1 to where if you read it word for word, it makes it seem like you can't shoot. So if we could just try to clear that up, which means our language won't exactly match the counties if we clear it up. You're talking about just the Section B? Yes. Okay. It does seem a little confusing. And what about the other holidays that were suggested by other members of council? Yeah, other council members also recommended that we adopt the holidays that were adopted by Lexington, which weren't adopted by Richland. So that's a question. If y'all would like us to include the additional holidays, we can do that. We have a list of those. We have a list of those. The only one I think that was mentioned specifically was, was it Dwalle or the Indian holiday? I think this is sufficient. I did too. This would match the counties. Lexington County. Right. Yeah. Any other questions on that subject? Our main presenter today is Trayvon Fordham, who is our director of violent crime prevention. He's been with us for several months now. And we would like for Trayvon to give us a briefing on what you've done and what you plan to do. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Trayvon Fordham again, director for the office of violent crime prevention. I'm just going to go through this PowerPoint presentation to provide you with a brief overview of what the office is doing and the plans moving forward. Before I get started, just a beautiful picture of our skyline because it's always majestic to see. All right. So I'm going to take this from three different stages. Stage one, of course, is where we were. Stage two is going to look like where we are. And then stage three is going to look at where we're going. So stage one is that assessment phase coming in today. Actually marks the 90th day of the office being in existence and my hiring or my hiring. And so initially when I came in this was there was this framework that really focused on the people, places and behaviors in addition to a framework that looked at prevention, intervention and enforcement. Right. So we've got all these different factors and aspects and one of the things as far as from an assessment standpoint that I've done is really get out and look at where we are as a city and identifying the people, places and behaviors, but also looking at where we are when it comes to prevention, intervention and enforcement. I'll get to that a little bit later. So with the assessment that I've been conducting so far, I've been examining the initial framework. Really establishing contacts for strategic partners. Some of those are educational partners. Some are working with our healthcare partners. A lot of also internal departments with the city of Columbia as well. We talk about parks and recreation who's doing different events. We talk about community development who's also doing housing programs and also as far as other financial assistance programs. So really looking at all of the things that the city is doing existing, but also working with other strategic partners. Again, conducting that pre-assessment, which will be concluded and will be prepared and distributed as well. So I'm attending a lot of community events to really get out and talk to different community organizations, find out what the pulse is, find out where, or identify some of their thoughts and perspectives, because the only way this is going to work when it comes to violence prevention and reduction is that we have buy-in working with our communities. So that's been very important, but also meeting what community groups as well. I thank for a list that I've received. I've gone through that list, met with just about everybody. There are a few that we're still going to meet with that's scheduled, but we've met with a lot of different community groups, heard what they had to say, and really taken that input and it will be part of the assessment as well. Can you tell us a little bit more about the community groups or what the community vibe is or the community concern? Can you just kind of dig into that a little bit and give me a feel for the anxiety I think that's out there in the community? Yeah, so definitely. It ranges. It ranges from going to different communities and different districts in the cities. Some of the things that I'm hearing is that as far as discharging or a lot of gunshots that they're hearing, to other saying that they're not enough activities for their young people, to other saying that they need jobs and workforce development, to other saying that, okay, it comes to education, everything from street lighting to speed bumps. So those are all things that kind of take an array when we talk about environmental design, which in working with the city, it's not that the city doesn't have a lot of these activities and programs in place. It's just folks aren't necessarily either knowing about them or getting to them. So that will be part of the assessment as far as really working through those barriers to really bridge that gap and what the perceptions are, what some of the fears or attitudes are, and kind of bridging that gap. So would it be fair to say that the city doesn't have a lot of these activities and programs in place, that these activities are and kind of bridging that gap? So would it be fair to say that there's a high level of concern? Again, it depends on where you are. Different parts of the city that the level of concern is higher. The anxiety levels are higher. Some areas that are experiencing higher, you know, violent crime rates are going to feel more angst and anxiety. But then one of the things that I found interesting as well is that you can go in an area of high violent crime based on our data and there's not much concern because it's become normal for them. It's become every day. So that's the scary part as well and actually going out there and seeing. But I'm very optimistic as far as what's out there, what the city is doing because there are a lot of great works that are being done. It's just getting them in the right places and really creating those partnerships. Kevin, who do you report to? Chief Hover? No, sir. I report directly to the city manager. Are you doing page nine? All the prevention and intervention and enforcement by yourself? No, sir. No. And we'll get to that where we are. That goes right at you. That's a perfect segue into stage two as far as the forming phase. After the assessment, after getting and learning in the lay of the land, again, I've been in Columbia the last 14 years, but being at the city level, I'm really focusing in on the city now. So where we are now as far as forming the actual office, that framework that I was provided with, that framework that I was providing really looked at an aim of what this office is looking to do as far as the aim of it. And it's in keeping with the city's mission. It's not anything outside of what the city already is looking to do as far as providing, exemplary leadership and exemplary services to all, right? What this office is aiming to do is coordinate the city's efforts. So that's all of our departments from Parks and Recreation, the police department, the community development when it comes to violent crime reduction strategies. So really doing the coordination, the planning, the alignment. Through this office. So that when we have any individuals outside of the city that look at saying, hey, what is Columbia doing on this for violence reduction? They would know to come to one centralized office. So that's the aim right there of this office. And here's the goal right here. So again, our goal as far as the Office of Violent Crime Prevention is coordinate the city's violence reduction efforts by developing a holistic approach that takes in evidence-based practices and really looks at the data that we have, all of the data that's available from our police department, from the programs that's being done from Parks and Recreation, but also to look at what our partners are doing across the nation when it comes to violence reduction. Columbia is not unique when it comes to violent crime. We know that. Between our city, our county, our state, our nation, violent crime is everywhere. So we've already been working with some other national partners in getting looped in. I've attended a training with one of our partners from Toledo, Ohio, from St. Louis, from New York. There was another group that was there from DC, from Washington, D.C. that's working in the DMV area. So really just picking their brain, see what they're doing as well, what some of the opportunities, also what barriers that they're running into, but also connecting with other areas that are similar to Columbia. So that kind of goes with our goal is to really use those evidence services and partnerships for all of our community stakeholders working together. So this is the summary of the office. Again, this derives directly from the framework that was provided to me when I came along in addition to position description. Essentially, the summary of the office is to devise strategic plans, evaluate and analyze data, implement programs, establish policies, and coordinate resources to promote effective partnerships to prevent and reduce violent crimes in the city of Columbia. All right. And the second part just says that the director of the office will serve as the lead or far as the expert when it comes to consultation to city leadership, as well as working with and being a liaison for our community groups, our organizations and building those partnerships when it comes to, again, reducing violent crime. One of the things that I saw and really continue to see my observations when it comes to our summary, but there's not a lot of coordination, particularly in the city of Columbia. So our office actually brings together all of our efforts when it comes to reducing violent crime and everything is funneling out of this office. How do you do that? Do you bring them to the table and sit around and talk about what they're doing and what you want to do? So that's going to be through strategic partnerships. And again, that's covered in another slide coming up. All right. So when we talk about the office community engagement and programming, there's the data evaluation analysis of strategic planning piece. There's also development grants and assistance. So when you talk about how do we do that and I talk about those strategic partnerships is definitely bringing folks to the table. That community engagement piece is huge. Very big. Because again, the city alone cannot solve this issue by itself. It's going to take some accountability, some partnerships and also support some residents. So all that comes into our community engagement and programming aspect. And this breaks down each pillar. And I won't go into each bullet point of what each pillar is. Again, but this breaks down what our office will do when it comes to each pillar for community engagement and programming. So really working with community partners, seeing what, if any gaps exist when it comes to programming, when it comes to activities, bringing together community partners who are already, and just need potentially some support from the city as well. Working collaboratively with our neighbors in the county and other jurisdictions. As we all know, crime is not geographically stopped at Columbia. We get individuals that commit crimes in the city that don't live in the city. They live in Worcester County, Lexington County, other places and vice versa. So I know our police department is doing an amazing job in working collaboratively with our community partners. And I think it's a great opportunity for us as well. Myself and the mayor attended a meeting and we sat down with some social service providers and talked about what those partnerships would look like. So those are the types of conversations we're talking about bringing folks together to really bridge that gap and meet those needs of what the community is asking for. That's going to be done through community engagement and programming. We've got some initiatives before him. We did get some preliminary approvals on some and some they're still working on. We've got a follow-up meeting with their dropout prevention and their mentorship coordinator tomorrow. So we've actually had several meetings with the school district to work with them because, again, what we've seen and what we know and from my background law enforcement, particularly being an SRO, what happens on the weekend in the neighborhoods or in the evenings, spills right into the school. And then beasts that happen in the school spill into the neighborhood on weekends and later on. We've had that connectedness when it comes to programming, when it comes to activities. We've already received blessings from working with the school district on some mentoring programs and also as far as to be able to set up and provide prevention, education, materials, brochures at district games. So football games, basketball games, working with specific schools. So those are things we're going to be rolling out as well, too. What I've talked about all of our community groups, like, so there are a lot of them that are doing great work, but they're all kind of either in silos. Although they're doing the same exact thing, but there's not a lot of coordination, right? So with that, we want to be able to catalog our existing resources from the city and our community partners to say, okay, for those who are in this group who are looking for a mentoring program, here's a mentoring program that's operating or who's looking for something gender specific when it comes to young girls. Here's a mentorship program, particularly for girls. So we're working to do that as well to catalog the available resources, but also to bring in social service partners. When we talk about substance use, when we talk about mental health, things that the city is already utilizing in other areas looking to extend those. The biggest key that a lot of folks will talk about is highest risk. We can all talk about what highest risk is. The definition may vary of what highest risk means. Some folks will say you're highest risk if you live in a particular area code or zip code. That's not necessarily a case. From everything that we've done in trying to establish our community-based violence intervention or our CVI ecosystem, we've come up with some definitions in working with our police department and others to really define what highest risk would look like here in the city of Columbia. I was wondering too, thinking about the schools and employers in the area, is there an opportunity to work with Richland 1 and 2 on jobs for high school students? We've tried that approach and we haven't seemed to figure out how to make it happen. I think you'd see a lot of employers in the area that would be happy to have high school juniors and seniors as part of an after-school work program or a summer work program. In Columbia, you end up with those types of jobs going to the people that you know already, not the people that you don't know. And those are some of the things that came up in our meeting. The city actually has partnerships existing when it comes to our JAG program that was working with local high schools for version one. There's the one city initiative as well. So there are several initiatives when it comes to workforce development. What we're looking at is strengthening those and seeing how we can enhance them to make sure that they're working properly. But there are some existing initiatives when it comes to workforce development working with the school district. And there are some others that, again, as we're talking about what that will look like with the district and what the districts have to also, you know, take some leadership with us in advertising these opportunities that have been created. I think Richland 2, for example, there was a whole signing of the program. I'm not sure Director Davis has met with you about it. But we have a program through the city of Columbia right now. But it's with Richland 2 and it is for jobs for their students to work with the city of Columbia. But they, you know, they really pushed it at the time. There was like a whole signing ceremony with all the different companies that were going to be involved with it. And we participated out of PIMP. May have more details because I don't remember all the name of it and everything. But it's, they're there. It almost feels like, though, that to Trivon's point. I think it's a connected issue. It's a connected issue. But there's got to be, you know, you know, if someone says, well, I know that Colite has, you know, available, you know, six available spots. Well, then someone still has to connect those dots to the people and the business. And, and that's, that's, that's the key. And I think, you know, I'm circled the word coordinate. I think at least three times already. I mean, you're right. You got to coordinate because someone has to be the person that owns, making sure it gets done. That the coordination gets done. And I guess with this program with Richland, too, do we have any students placed? We do. I don't remember if it's just the summer and Pam may be able to speak to it in Denise's app since I'm not sure I want to put her on the spot. But she would know that. Yeah. You're on the spot. And again, Miss Pam, I don't need like great details, but it's more or less appropriate. Yeah. And I would continue to do it. Yes. It definitely got started and there are individuals at the school districts that coordinate the students. You know, they identify which students would be great to be placed in different departments in different areas. And then they work with the students and the parents. You know, because they have to have transportation to the job and they have to have all of those things. We are very successful in our fleet department. We have a lot of management to get their mechanics and get certifications. That's been a really strong one. And we've got some and a couple other departments. I can't remember them right now. It's up my head. But there is a very good relationship between the HR department here at the city and the coordinators at the districts to work through those programs because all of the school districts are supposed to have someone that's in that capacity to place the students and work with students and to locate opportunities at Colite and other other organizations. But like Ms. Wilson said, they really honestly have to be the ones out there being the pavement identifying those those opportunities. We just know we have a partnership with them. But yes, there's a lot of other opportunities out there and hopefully through Travon's coordination with those school districts we can expand on that and make sure they're aware that that's the gap that's missing that they're really not capitalizing on the opportunities that are out there. And I would love to help you with the connections to the business community as part of this. I really, you know, I think education and jobs, you know, and you mentioned most of those, I mean that's still the most sustainable pathway to success. Absolutely. Because those at risk are often those that, you know, don't see a future or don't have any opportunities. And if we can show them those things then they'll be that'll lower that at risk population for sure. So we're putting this in Travon's bucket. Well, again, he's a coordinator. So he's not to create to help coordinate. Exactly. So again, he somebody just needs to own it. Exactly. He has the contacts with HR department who in turn have the contacts with the districts and then all those things work together. So I think if he can identify either neighborhoods or certain areas that we want to encourage the school districts to concentrate on finding students from those areas, I think that those are the things that we are trying to make those connections. But he's, you know, he's got lots of he's great at those partnerships and relationships internally and externally. And so those are the things that we want to really utilize him to do. Love it. And so our office definitely aligns with that because when we talk about reducing and preventing violent crime, so many people are taking a one prong approach approach that's not necessarily been working as effective as they'd like. We understand and realize that it's going to take prevention and prevention and the enforcement of that. And so we really got to provide some resources when it gets down to housing when it comes to economics, jobs, workforce development, education, the health care piece. And also so all of those things loop into when we talk about preventing and reducing violent crime. So with that workforce piece as far as an economic development, we're definitely working on that as well too with the school districts but with other partners as well. And so I talked about who would be labeled as at risk. The age range of those who are deemed at risk as defined by the Center for Disease Control, Department of Justice and this data was received from well that part as far as the age range is based on those who have been victimized in the last five years and that data was received from the Columbia Police Department. So that's our age range when we talk about prevention services and reduction services but also those who have family members or our family history path because they have other family members who are gang members or who are career criminals. That's what they see that's what they know that would put them at risk. Folks who are recently released from jail or prison so when we talk about reintegration when we talk about reentry services working with service providers for these types of referrals as well is going to be important. So there are a number of different factors that we've kind of labeled and designate programs to stop young people or stop families from a prevention standpoint we can have the intervention programs once someone's going along the path but there's still a target population as we talk about that small percentage of folks that commit a lot of our violent crime those are who are at our highest risk. So we're also going to have to have programming activities and services directly for them and so that's why it was important for us to really talk about prevention real quick. So we talk about prevention if someone's already at high risk is that reasonable that we're in a prevention mode or where's it too late? For them it could be too late. So again the prevention folks will be for a prevention to prevent them that's your positive youth development that's your mentoring thing those are all really the prevention is for the group before this group. Correct. And so that's why we're going to take a tiered approach. This is the enforcement group. Correct. Prevention group which is everybody else that's not in this group. Now and to some point as well to some point as well some of the folks as far as the enforcement group and that's why we included in there those who release because there are some individuals that after they get released from jail of prison they're coming right because they don't have those skills they don't have the education they're not finding jobs so crime is their avenue. And I guess just for clarity so when I see socially connected to violence I don't see that as someone who is too far gone I see that as someone if we don't give them a brighter path or some type of intervention doesn't happen then their expected outcome would be to be 100% I guess the more boxes you check up here the more problems that we got so I guess I guess that's what I was looking at it's like it makes sense actually the way it's laid out like this that's you know but I guess I think you're right but I guess what I was saying is if you if you take if you check enough boxes on here you're probably in a different category and so to that point this is our whole entire comprehension of all of our programs so this isn't directly saying okay you have to have all of these and you fall into prevention or all these intervention we're saying with different aspects of these what are the highest risk factors right now what we look at as far as prevention or intervention or the other side of it that will depend on the individuals coming in but again that's one way but we're looking at it from prevention intervention and an enforcement standpoint and that was really a big piece that was honed in on what others have failed on is that they just wanted to take a one-prong approach and so we want to make sure that we have programs activities and services particularly for prevention particularly for intervention that on that back piece of reentry or reintegration it's not a discussion for today but at some point I do want to discuss weapons carrier because some people I just went to a self-defense course so I carry weapons correct but that I am allowed to carry so maybe a how we characterize a weapons carrier definitely I don't want you to think about high risk because I might check a couple of weapons carrier right and that's what I'm saying I'm thinking but that not for a discussion today but just as a thought and that is something that we looked at when we were putting this together the premise behind it is when we talk about just general as far as who could be at risk most having those weapons on you whether illegal or not utilizing it in the wrong manner right so but that is something we can definitely clean up the character I'm saying those terms on the list your name is not on it now but that is a theory that I have heard some people say that the mere fact that you carry a gun for prevention actually increases the likelihood that you will use the gun because you have it like it adds to yeah and again we can clean that up particularly I know right now there is a huge mindset and I don't want to say culture but it's becoming a culture of young people carrying guns because they say they need to so not understanding that you're not old enough to actually be carrying that weapon on you there are laws that prevent that but getting to the other side of it is as a society what's making you feel so unsafe getting to that root cause so again this is what we've kind of just come up with with our initial definitions as far as who we are providing services we're looking at referrals we're looking at programs that's our kind of guideline to it I think when you talk about some of the community input I think in today's world there's a high level of anxiety a high level of just feeling of not not safe and you can you know whoever feels not safe that's you can't explain to them that that's not their feeling it is what it is we have developed this culture of I don't want to say fear maybe that's strong but I mean we just have that's why I like you know I like the concept of how we're engaging I think you have to engage people first and then I think the data backs up the engagement right correct I think too of knowing Mr. Brown a little bit now and how he's thinking probably I would I guess describe this period of time these 90 days that Trevon has been in is you know due diligence and discovery and beginning now to get the lay of the land start getting more of the data that what he's describing in that previous slide describes you know kind of the buffet of potential services of who's at risk but I also know that as a city and with resources and resources being limited he's going to then have to drill down on where can we be most impactful and within what frames of time and how and to the point of you know is it the anxiety level trying to can we hone in on those things the why behind that and how we can bring the temperature down a little bit what are the things as a city that he can be most effective at doing when he is connecting with the schools or the businesses or though is that where we really need to start because I agree with you sometimes because we're doing trying to do so much between parts and recreation and now with him in place believes you know at some point we have to figure out where can we make the biggest difference and where can we put our resources is the next step with the funding that council had set aside is there there are many groups who as he's like serving connect they built their brand they've got resources behind them they're doing wonderful things but there's not probably a week that goes by that I don't get a call from just a grassroots person in a neighborhood or through a church or whatever who wants to do something but they are a little bit out of loss as to the how and where they can be folded into programmatically folded into doing something impactful and I think what we'll get to a point to come back to you are probably best through this committee is with the funding that maybe we've allocated how do we then begin to build an opportunity for him to not you know do all the work but be a facilitator and maybe there's some type of opportunity for grants or whatever that we can then say hey we know now you want to be a part of something you can bring impact to this particular segment of the community and he's that I guess bridge builder or that or convener of additional you know people together to make a difference so it is connected to dots and we're going to have to figure out what that ultimate really looks like so that we're actually I mean he's doing I'm not saying this is kind of the figuring it out piece but then once we do that we're going to have to come back to y'all to say okay how do you want to literally you know give you know people to impact for service delivery he needs to have a long list of different service providers service they meant so when it gets a situation here he can go down his list we'll just want to get over there get the dots yeah exactly because he can't he can't do the program now he just has to know about the program right he doesn't have time to do the program and so going back to that and it'll be in the summary as well that's pretty much what this office is looking to do the coordination piece cataloging and bringing together existing resources not necessarily being the resource for everyone or everything but being able to as far as having that organization that are doing the work going there when we talk about the data analysis evaluation strategic planning again just really putting together the plans when it comes to violence reduction working with our police department and the fire department as well when it comes to different reporting and coming up with crime prevention and intervention strategies again that's just another slide when it talks about some of the functions of the office when it comes to data analysis planning we'll go through all of that one quick question too with respect to your data are you pulling data have access to data or are you having to build data so right now we're utilizing existing data a lot of it's the crime data from the police department that we're utilizing as we move forward and start looking at different aspects let's say we're looking at something that deal with code enforcement or deal with fire hazards programs our parks and recreation departments doing we'll reach out to them so we're definitely going to utilize the data we have available and as we start working and moving forward then we'll compile a report each year as far as our violence prevention initiatives from all of our different departments across the city I think we're fortunate to your point Councilwoman Herbert that we have this real time data that Chief Holbrook and those have been readily available to the point that even with the most recent recent tragic events of the last few days I've noticed even though that was in the county the data that's being reported is city data and you know it doesn't matter because it's all our community but the data that I've seen reported is their data it says Columbia they don't they attribute it to them bad thing good data I know you might mention this but talk a little bit about when you get a chance about your the parent engagement and I'll get to that now because that was one of the things in the initial slide but again talking to community folks organizers that's one of the things that they really harped on is that parent engagement piece that's so important there are community organizations that right now that's what they specialize in youth working with their families working with those who are deemed at highest risk that's what they specialize in what was the name again I didn't say just there are a few community organizations I didn't say one specifically yeah so with that being said we just worked with one last week to where they've got a grant but they don't have a target audience they don't have anybody to work with so again as a city those are things where we're talking about young people that are not just working with youth and those who are that in-between population of teenagers and the young adults but also as far as with parents because that's going to be important when we talk about parental support with young people but also as far as with them and workforce development and we talk about those type of things too so we're really looking to partner with community organizations who are doing the citizens peace this office was tasked as far as identifying funding opportunities grant dollars federal grant dollars particular state to really put together a plan for our vows and reduction and intervention strategies eventually would also like to get to a point to where we're also making many grants or sub-awards to community organizations to support them for doing the work in the city of Columbia that'll be down the road but we will actually put together some of it will be mirrored by the development is already doing with their grants and really tailoring a process to do many grants or sub-awards to assist community organizations who are doing the work but the other part of that will be securing funding going after funding identifying funding specifically for community violence reduction violence intervention also some things as far as other aspects when it deals with reducing violence and creating that plan and a budget as well too I will say and this is coming up so next week that we actually put an application for the Bureau of Justice Assistance JAG local solicitation for an allocation for the city of Columbia so that would provide some anchor as well too with those funds but that was one of the few ones that was still available as I came in the office so as I was researching we start looking next year when the funding cycle starts back January February we are looking at several different funding pots that we can partner with the city but also external partners as well too like the school district we have talked to them about after school mentoring and what those partnerships will look like to secure funding because it is always better when we talk about really having no strategic partnerships for the community so that is that piece of that as far as the development of your agenda for Tuesday so I will see that for your approval that it had to come before the account correct it is one of the certifications and insurances before our chief executive officer Wilson consigned it has to be reviewed by the governing body so the other part too development grants and assistance is really connecting residents and service providers to enrichment skills when we talk about those the education we talk about jobs social services being that connection there to kind of give them alternatives away when we make decisions we make decisions based on what we have available and what we think the result could be right so most of our decisions are the outcomes are usually positive and successful because that's what we have in front of us everybody doesn't have that opportunity when it comes to so in them making decisions just trying to connect those dots really put them in touch with alternatives for them to if they accept it and they're willing to take those programs and services providing training technical assistance for local governments community stakeholders as we talk about violence reduction and intervention I've been in this thing for like I said the last 14 years so I've done trainings I've done trainings at the local level state level even at the national level so we can provide those trainings to our our local community organizations as well as other stakeholders and also as far as what technical assistance will look like as we move forward and we start talking about the grants or sub award process we want to make sure that folks actually understand what that process is so that's having a grant workshop or grant 101 again when we talk about providing resources to community groups it's not always going to be us giving funding sometimes it could be us connecting them to a source where they can get the funding sometimes it could be the assistance piece as far as them connecting them to get that done as well from a technical assistance standpoint so that's kind of looking to go as an office so stage three is what we're coming upon next step definitely need to hire SAF another individual at least to coordinate the efforts that we're doing you can get all of this by yourself I'm trying I'm definitely trying but as we all know we talk about coordinating community events it is tough for one person to be at three places at once and then the one thing about it and I'll show that in a second is once your name and office starts getting out there people start calling upon you more so we're getting we're getting invites to come sitting community groups to have lunch with folks to come talk about violence prevention to you know folks at their churches are having different events and they're calling upon the office to come out and be part of it so all of the efforts I get I'm sending them around a lot of work but that's definitely an important part the city is doing a lot of great things when it comes to violence reduction I will say it and this is not a not but just when folks think about violence reduction everybody thinks Chief Holbrook and the Columbia Police Department they don't think about how parks and recreation has a place in that how community development has a place in that how economic development has a place in that where we have resources the website for the office a link to the city of Columbia will be will be up soon so we'll start building that and we're building on that and we're talking cataloging resources for community groups when folks say hey I need this mentoring I need this that will be listed on there all of our violence reduction efforts will be on there right now if you do open source and again these are all the other different things as far as community different programs the trainings looking to host violence prevention community meetings also symposium and I'm just looking at this of course researching those funding opportunities providing that technical assistance the key thing on there is really identifying our community based violence intervention ecosystem talk a little bit about CVI or community that's not us doing a mentorship program that's not necessarily a parks and recreation event right when we talk about CVI that's working directly with those who are deemed at highest risk so I'm saying there's tears to this that's what it's designated towards so we talk about the police department and ceasefire project that falls under our CVI cause that's dealing directly with those at highest risk that have been at risk so we've got to continue to build on our CVI system the other thing that we're really going to build upon is our partnerships with our health based network our hospitals I know again from being a former police officer sometimes you get a call of a shooting you go there and there's nobody or nobody there right 10 minutes later you get a call from Prisma hey there's a body here or hey there's someone that came into a gunshot room that's a bullet hole what they know that so they they're not cooperative with law enforcement but yet they talk to staff at the hospital and things like that so the hospitals have data that's not really being access shared to the level that it can be right now so we're looking to enhance that partnership with our health based partner so data sharing will be important cause then we can also identify more trends of gunshot wounds of domestic violence victims of sexual assault and that works as well so from an education base where we talk about a school based program a health based program and then all of that will fall under our CVI ecosystem right so that is that piece as far as where we're going in the next steps I wanted to share a few pictures again since I've been out and about from beginning to the last we get dumped that was interesting Greenview has their newsletter they do each month they did a feature department so that was interesting and there are several other pictures and then of course when serving connect being out there so we're really trying to make an imprint of working with community partners on the ground finding out their needs finding out what the identification is and really bridging that gap because that's what it's all about when it comes to building those relationships and connecting those dots and that's what our office seeks to do so those are just some of the highlights again meeting with the school district several different community events being on track now as far as with the assessment that we're going to release the website coming up is another big one the application getting it in for the BJA grant there's been a lot of different things in the last 90 days that we can really build upon and we're going to build upon fortunately I say this right now we are the only city only entity in the state of South Carolina with an established office of violent crime prevention I think folks know that understand that not to say we're bolstering when we say that because we want to see other municipalities other cities and counties go along with that but we've got an opportunity to really be transformative and really provide a blueprint of what it could look like to bring folks together and really connect the dots so as I get to the summary again this office or director will serve as the quarterback to centralize also working with our police department and law enforcement agencies as far as enforcement that's going to be done again through assessments and really looking at environmental factors which again is already being done cataloging coordinating available resources working with community members to connect them to other services and also identifying and securing funding that's designated to violence prevention and prevention as well as the report of different things my first month or first week and last week June it shows what kind of the numbers as far as meetings we're from 3 to 31 last month but one of the things that's really important is the community events going from one and that week of June to really 13 already last month and we're probably going to clip that for this month not just going and showing up but also finding out about folks who have grant dollars and don't have anyone to share it with or that they have these services and just need a little bit of coordination so that's kind of been the biggest thing is really getting out of the office getting into communities working with folks as we move forward the other thing has been after incident interventions and I know you may see that on there after incident interventions have been things where we find out about as far as through the police really going out looking at the layout as we all or folks who may not know a lot of times when you talk about crime it's usually layered in there are some aspects that usually kind of occur particularly when we talk about the environmental factors a lot of times it's near vacant houses vacant buildings vacant lots which I know we do a great job as a city with our black program and really kind of taking care of structures that are nuisance or just removing them but those are some of things that I know a few months ago there was a shooting that happened off too much and it went there and it happened right next to a cut or a vacant lot so one of those things you look at you can kind of see what's on paper you see it okay when you also talk about talking to business owners residents that are in those areas those are the things that we talk about after incident interventions when we're receiving that information from the police department how we're responding and how we're connecting dots to provide one of the things that the city of the house that got shot talking to the grandmother because she wanted to move was afraid and was asking about resources what resources we had so really connected her with not only victim services but also with the attorney general's office to see what they can do through the victims compensation fund so again connecting those dots after incidents or some of the things that this office is doing as well and as we really kind of define what that's going to look like in working with CPD that's going to connect those dots connect those dots working together to reduce violent crime in the city of Columbia and create safer communities contact information and that concludes the presentation or the update I would also love to be kept in the loop of your activity in District 4 so if you have some type of meeting or community event I would love to tag along with you when I can will do definitely and that's something that we're looking as well to as far as how we're we're looking at potentially in a calendar on that OVCP website or the office website of events and things that have been sent but a lot of times things will get like I've got one for tonight that they sent me today I get all that I get that so those things come up you're my last minute as things come up you'll definitely definitely kind of keep you all in the loop with that so that's something we're looking at still working on we can keep everybody in the loop because that's what it's going to take is those partnerships to connect the dots great great job excellent presentation thank you for doing that so I just wanted to follow up Ms. Wilson I went back to ask HR about the programs with the districts so the one that's with District one it's called One City Future Ready and the other one is with Rich and Count with the school district too and that's a premiere to career and we actually were able to place during the school year some students in Parks and Recreation in the IT department in business licensing in the summers we have Fleet Parks and Rec Public Works Engineering and Business Licensing once again it was a little bit difficult during the school year with the students schedules and getting them back and forth so they're working on fine tuning that and we have more of an emphasis for the summer for this coming spring and school year so Mr. Brown will certainly connect with you to see whether there's opportunities for your especially with you know we have employment issues and I think a lot of there's you know there's there's always misconceptions everywhere and you know we have a factory but it's not it's not the factory of yesterday it's the factory of tomorrow right and I think a lot of people would say I don't work in a factory well it just happens to be a pretty nice building with air conditioning so it's not it's not exactly a lot of technology and some of those things that they're they're not thinking about a good opportunity for a career a lack of exposure right right but they may have some preconceived notion of something or just no notion or no no notion they have to be exposed these students have to be exposed and there's a lot of companies like us we don't you know and because we don't do a lot of local business we don't talk about ourselves you know so we just we go about our business and we don't advertise who we are why we are what we're doing so I think there's a lot of people like that yeah definitely thanks Chief Oberon glad to have you with us anything you'd like to say to the committee I I'm seeing yeah thank you Chief Trevon is making his rounds I think he's doing a great job and he is hustling we I mean you all I don't tell you all how many meetings we can he is not only is he typically where we are the police department but he is he's you know touching those touch points that we don't and I think that's where his roles are going to be really important you know from a business standpoint Giffords Law Center estimates a fatal gun crime costs everybody about over eight hundred thousand dollars wow that's the community impact so this I mean this as far reaching and I you know it's exciting really to see what's going to come out of this and he's got our full support anything that that we can do to assist to move this needle like we talk about and we appreciate all the investment you all of and confidence you have in us and what we're doing our programming and you know I think the best is yet to come from this office I think that goes back to the conversations we have a lot which is you know money's fluid it's not black and white so you know there's there's downstream effects for everything I mean the more investment you put in on the front end hopefully the better investment you get at the back end great either one of you having anything else nope thank you Mr. Chairman without objection we will be adjourned thank you thank you