Fourth of July fireworks
2008 Cityfolk Festival
Spotted at the Cityfolk Festival
Gang activity spawns prevention effort
MVH plans to launch program to help curb gang violence; police, schools, others will participate in effort.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
DAYTON — Miami Valley Hospital said Tuesday, March 4, that it is launching a broad-based violence prevention effort whose participants will include law enforcement, education and social service agencies.
One target will be street gang activity, the subject of a Dayton Daily News series published Feb. 17 and 18 that found that law enforcement agencies have connected assaults, drug trafficking, shootings and homicides to more than a dozen local street gangs.
Extras
Sean Hamilton, manager of the hospital's Injury Prevention Center, said as many as 20 representatives will meet Thursday, March 6, at the hospital.
Those representatives are coming from the Dayton Police Department, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, Dayton Public Schools, Sinclair Community College, the NAACP, Dayton Urban League and Montgomery County Juvenile Court, among others.
"It's a strategy session and a way to start a dialogue," Hamilton said.
"We hope the agencies that are coming will have a better understanding of violence in their own backyard and what can be done to be part of the solution. We are focusing on violence and gun violence and all the activity that surrounds it."
The hospital's trauma registry shows that gun violence is a significant reason for admissions among youth. Black males, Hamilton said, are a "huge piece of that."
The initiative could include a media campaign, education through a pilot school program and an intervention program in partnership with the county Juvenile Court system, Hamilton said.
Parts of the program could carry on for years, Hamilton said, noting that a program between the hospital and the courts that targets teens and motor vehicle crashes is five years old.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.
