City of Rochester
News Release
(Friday, July 23, 2021) – Mayor Lovely A. Warren announced today that the City’s new Office of Neighborhood Safety will facilitate a Violence Prevention Summit from 1 to 5 p.m., Thursday, July 29 at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center, 123, E. Main St. The free summit is open to the public and will provide residents and stakeholders with an opportunity to help the City develop a citywide, community-based Violence Reduction Strategy that includes public oversight, accountability and reporting.
“The Violence Reduction Strategy will give us the tool we need to place the citizens of Rochester at the forefront of our mission to develop a whole-city approach to reducing shootings and other forms of violence in our city,” said Mayor Warren. “With the creation of the Office of Neighborhood Safety, we can put the job of neighborhood safety and violence reduction where it belongs: in the hands of the community. I encourage anyone who wants to help us make Rochester safer and give our children the future they deserve to participate in Violence Prevention Summit.”
The Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) was created in May 2021 to coordinate the missions of civilian violence-reduction organizations and give the community a greater role in public safety. The City this week appointed Dr. Kiah Nyame as its Coordinator.
The Summit will feature a keynote address by DeVone Boggan, CEO of Advance Peace, of Richmond, CA. who helped develop the Peacemaker Fellowship program, a mentor- and peer- based violence interruption program that focuses on ending the cycle of retaliation that perpetuates gun violence in American cities.
The Summit will also feature a panel discussion moderated by Lynette Adams from WHEC-TV. The panelists are:
- Antoine Towers, Chairperson, Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition;
- Willie Lightfoot Sr., Vice President Rochester City Council, co-founder of the Roc Against Gun Violence Coalition;
- Fred Fogg, Regional Director, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc.; and
- Aqeela Sherrills, Newark, NJ Office of Violence Prevention
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in the following group sessions:
- Transformative Mentoring, presented by Khaalid Muttaqi, COO, Advance Peace;
- Measuring Outcomes in Violence Prevention, presented by Dr. Irshad Altheimer; and
- The State of Violence Interruption in Rochester, led by Melvin Cross
To register for the summit, visit: www.cityofrochester.gov/ONS.
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