Councilmember David Tandy, District 4, Louisville, KY
Kenton Buckner, Assistant Chief of Police, Louisville Metro Police
Maggie Elder, Vice President for Community Impact, Metro United Way
Tony Peyton, Director for Policy and Special Projects, Louisville Metro Government
Ambassador Shabazz, Community Member
Anthony Smith, Director for Safe Neighborhoods, Louisville Metro Government

After the shocking murder of three young African Americans in their neighborhood last year, the Mayor called for the creation of a cross-sector Violence Prevention Work Group to create a report outlining recommendations to address root causes and develop holistic strategies with long-term impacts to prevent violence. This report serves as the blueprint for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods. Some of the immediate steps taken have been to devote resources to hire staff to lead this work and the formation of a Crisis Response Team. Their five major goals over the next five years are to reduce homicides and shootings, increase the number of students graduating from high school, increase employment, and to conduct an annual citywide quality of life survey to shape future work. Much of this work requires understanding which strategies are appropriate for their target populations, building partnerships and relationships with key community leaders and organizations, and developing a sense of community ownership.

Participating Teams: