LEXINGTON, Ky. — Non-violence advocates are stepping up their efforts after consecutive weekends with violent incidents in Lexington.
ONE Lexington is a group focused on combating youth gun violence. Their focus demographic is ages 13 through 29. Now, they’re partnering with city leaders and other community members for a new form of outreach to young people.
“Downtown is not a place for 13, 14, 15-year-olds at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and so only bad things can happen and so our team is going down there specifically to engage the demographic,” said One Lexington Director Devine Carama.
The group in bright orange t-shirts and hoodies are known as “the downtown Peacekeepers.”
They provide safety tips, resources and help with de-escalation among young people from midnight until 3 a.m. on busy evenings.
The group recently launched the new initiative. On the same evening, however, four individuals, age 27 and younger, were involved in a shooting off North Mill Street, a popular road with big crowds and bars.
Carama says they received a good response from some individuals.
“We have that relationship with so many young people in the city and do the work. I think most of them were receptive to it,” he said.
The community advocates will provide intervention for young people when possible and plan to assist law enforcement in those areas that have had frequent shootings.
ONE Lexington Community Outreach Advocate Kenneth Payne says these kinds of situations can be hard to navigate for anyone, specifically young people.
“You know, being young you’re probably not thinking about things as someone older would, so in those situations they don’t have the mindset of how to navigate through the situations,” said Payne.
Carama says the challenge is to stay consistent.
“There were also young people that weren’t as receptive to our presence right in it, and that is part of it, too. But I think the consistency, continuing to be down there and be a resource for them,” he shared.
Carama says this new initiative is all about relationships and prevention.
“We were able to utilize our relationship with them and our connection with them to mediate those situations that could’ve led to an arrest, or that could lead to further conflict and so I do find value in this,” he explained.
Carama says that by next year, they hope to have peacekeepers outside and in their orange t-shirts across the nation.