{"id":1449,"date":"2021-05-20T15:37:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T15:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=1449"},"modified":"2021-05-20T15:39:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T15:39:07","slug":"a-young-audience-tackles-gun-violence-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/20\/a-young-audience-tackles-gun-violence-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"A Young Audience Tackles Gun Violence Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1450\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1450\" style=\"width: 261px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1450\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/JoJuan-Armour-and-Montrice-Terry.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"261\" height=\"214\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1450\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JoJuan Armour and Montrice Terry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Sojourner\u2019s Truth Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The second of three community forums on gun violence in the city of Toledo was held at Woodward High School on Saturday, May 16, before an audience of about 75, including a number of young students.<\/p>\n<p>JoJuan Armour, commissioner of Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz\u2019s Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence, led the discussion and opened the event by explaining that the city\u2019s data on violence have led the initiative to focus on three critical areas \u2013 central Toledo including the Junction neighborhood, the Lagrange Street area in north Toledo and the Garfield-Starr neighborhood in East Toledo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will create themes from the information,\u201d said Armour. He noted, for example, that the information from south Toledo indicated that, given the paucity of adult males in homes, more mentorships are needed there. However, in north Toledo, residents have indicated that \u201cwe don\u2019t need mentorships because we have more men at home but without jobs,\u201d said Armour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have that piece of self-identity with neighborhoods,\u201d added Montrice Terry of the City Park League who is working with Armour on the community forums and the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe goal is to create something sustainable to address gun violence effectively,\u201d noted Armour. He provided information on statistics that shows that gun violence deaths in 2020 doubled from the previous year and that the total of deaths for 2021 are on pace to exceed the 2020 total with 20 homicides so far this year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1451 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_5662.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"261\" height=\"185\" \/>Dawn Thomas, a prevention systems manager for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, introduced how the city is establishing a process to work on the steps for the initiative \u2013 the first step being the assessment of the situation. Then the city will attempt to build capacity as it attempts to plan, implement and continue to evaluate its progress.<\/p>\n<p>She stressed that community involvement will be critical to the success of the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>The students in attendance were an important part of the conversation, several discussing their personal remorse about deaths but also noting that youth in Toledo need more opportunities for social activities and more employment opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The third town hall meeting will be held at Waite High School on Saturday, May 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sojourner\u2019s Truth Staff The second of three community forums on gun violence in the city of Toledo was held at Woodward High School on Saturday, May 16, before an audience of about 75, including a number of young students. JoJuan Armour, commissioner of Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz\u2019s Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence, led the discussion and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[56],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1452,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions\/1452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}