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Grand Rapids Task Force seeks ideas from community to address gun violence

A total of five different pitches will be awarded $10,000 after Wednesday’s presentation to the city of Grand Rapids’ Safe Task Force.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A collection of nonprofits and individuals will offer their ideas on how cut down on violent crime to members of the city’s Safe Alliances for Everyone (SAFE) Task Force Wednesday night.

The group’s annual “Pitch and Highlight Night” will take place Nov. 30 and run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation, located at 1530 Madison Ave SE. A total of five organizations will be awarded $10,000.

According to the task force’s website, the community-based effort works to solve issues with residents between the age of 15 to 24 and places a focus on gun violence as well creating pro-social opportunities and addressing mental health issues.

“Creating those pathways into things that are positive that are going to support them, their families and our economies, is what we want to see,” said SAFE Task Force co-chair and Grand Rapids city commissioner Milinda Ysasi.

“Knowing that many times those crimes can be perpetrated, or a gun could be involved, (we want to see) how can they have better pro-social emotional support for young people, therapy that can help repair and restore the family, and really focus on some of the healing and preventing that cycle of domestic violence from occurring.”

This year, 18 different pitches will be made to the task force, Ysasi said. Although city governments are largely limited from implementing gun reform, she believes ideas coming from the community can make an impact.

“When we're talking about trying to undo structural issues in our society, I believe that the work that I do as a city commissioner in these last three years, and the next two that I'll do – and hopefully the next four – I'm not going to see a lot of the benefits of that until I'm out of office – because we're talking about the things that we can control as the city – which is funding that we can put forth to support individuals, trying to work with our police department to identify what are the right strategies to reduce gun violence in the city, while also recognizing how people want to be policed in this community,” Ysasi said.

“We're dealing with the fact that we don't, as a city, have any control over the usage of guns or automatic weapons in this country, that is something that’s on a federal level, that we have very little control over."

Winners of 2021’s Pitch Night included:

  • We Matter Nowa one-day conference that provides conflict resolution, problem solving and self-efficacy training for youth.
  • Muse GR, an art gallery that expanded to provide a community production studio for teens and young adults to practice photography, as well as their music-based education through their nonprofit, Muse(ed).
  • Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation, an ADA-accessible space that offers conference rooms and outdoor seating, received a sponsorship for their community basketball league, where young people will be able to participate in a basketball league in exchange for reduction in participants’ truancy and school suspensions, increased community engagement service with support from mentors while promoting wellness.
  • Neighborhood Association Collaborative of Grand Rapids, a collaboration of neighborhood associations in the creation and execution of a “Safe Streets = Safe Neighborhoods" public awareness campaign to focus on educating and training the community on gun safety and evidence-based practices to address the public health crisis of violence and trauma.
  • Puertas Abiertas, IncSpanish for "open doors," the six-month program to support adolescents between the age of 14-18 who are survivors of domestic violence.

While most of the programs only affect anywhere from 10 to 15 teens at a time, Ysasi said those investments have the potential to change lives.

“They’re engaging with the parents, because they definitely need that high-touch and high-connection point,” she said. “It's not going to happen in mass, it's going to happen very much on one-to-one relationships.”

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