HomeMy WebLinkAboutGVPC Minutes 08.20.21Roanoke City Gun Violence Commission
Meeting Minutes
8-10-21, at 5: 34 pm @ Roanoke City Municipal Building
Commissioners Present: Kathy Cohen, Taisha Steele, Joe Cobb, Tim Harvey, Elliot Major, Nicole Ross, Stacey Shepppard
Absent: Shakira Williams
Topic (Agenda
Item)
Notes from Discussion Actions for Follow Up Person(s)
Responsible
Welcome ● Going to adopt a “virtual policy” in the by-laws so that individuals
may meet virtually or hybrid
● Currently required to meet in-person with a quorum until by-laws
change
Roll Call See above; quorum present
Approval of
Minutes from June
and July 2021
● Tim first motion
● Nicole second
● Minutes adopted
Roanoke Police
Dept. Report
● Presentation of data by Joe Cobb
○ As of August 8th, 2021
○ Covering case status, cases by zone, offences/incidents,
and age ranges
○ Infographic of above data
● Joe suggesting that in Septemeber meeting commission considers
map/zones, root causes, community grants, etc.
September meeting discussion on map
and programming
Joe to bring back
at Sept. meeting
RESET ● Decca read the report submitted by Lloyd Merchant, Coordinator of
the RESET team
● Stacey: Coordinated response between Rapid Response and
RESET
○ Rapid more immediate response than RESET
■ Navigated through phone calls, family case
management, services (hotels, food, mental health,
basic needs, etc.)
■ Rapid Response running into a similar situation as
the RESET team regarding volunteer recruitment,
i.e. it is difficult to recruit and retain volunteers
● Elliot: Do we have an active program to recruit mentors?
○ Boys and girls clubs, Big Brothers and Big Sisters
○ Long-term connection and follow-up with impacted youth
● Stacey: multidisciplinary staffing to serve the families
○ Will this happen with the new positions being hired?
● Nicole: should we develop a mentoring program specific to these
needs?
○ Could cut down on the match time?
● Elliot: more immediate check-ins with youth before being matched
with a mentor
● Damon Davis with Peacemakers:
○ A lot of issues do not get addressed within the Black
community
○ Young men without voices
○ Young men who don’t want to grow up in gangs but feel that
they have no other choice
○ People in poor neighborhoods are just surviving
GVPC Logo Requests to amp up the color, add the star, send out revisions through email
to the group
Working Group
Updates
● Safe Neighborhoods
o No new info
o Nicole and Tim meeting tomorrow
o Wanting to investigate the overlay of the map as Joe suggested
● Education
o Family Services developing programming for 8 sessions for pilot
program for their after school programs (approximately 275
youth)
▪ Pilot over first year
▪ Train the trainer the second year and extend to other
community programs
o Short parenting courses for community partners
▪ Budget being developed
▪ Nicole: Paradise Youth Center looking for programming
for parents
o Kathy has started working with Hayley Poland with RCPS on
Reading program
▪ Recruitment of volunteers through faith community
and RCPS
▪ Can push out volunteer opportunities to the
community
o Continue the trauma-informed presentations and target
communities
● Gang Violence Reduction and Incarceration Recidivism
o Joe and Elliot met with the Sheriff’s Department regarding
expanding programming
▪ Access to services before discharge/ pre-mentoring
programming
● Rapid Response
o Another meeting with Carilion coming up next week regarding
hospital base dinterventions
● Marketing and Communications
o Bidding process for a marketing and messaging campaign
Youth and Gang
Violence
Assessment
● Hosting Youth Service providers on August 18th from 12-2 pm with
TAP Voices from the Youth program
● Sending out bids for consulting services to coordinate and
implement the assessment
Gun Violence
Intervention
Update
● Three jobs are posted
o 13 applicants for the coordinator and 12 for the outreach
o Interview team through Human Resources
o Interviews to take place between Aug 30 and Sept 3
Funding Requests
from Working
Groups
● $75,000 in city budget and $62,500 state funding (used for
interventions below)
○ Mentoring, SEL curricula, mentoring, trauma/resiliency,
youth employment
● Potential other funding opportunities
○ Attorney general funding
○ 2.5 million for violence prevention for communities already
engaging in programming
○ Some of the 65 million recovery funding
● Education:
○ Family Services Curriculum Development $6,560 ($23.75
per student- 275 students in FS afterschool programs)
○ $3,600 for Reading program: approved at previous meeting
○ Parenting budget undetermined
○ Contiuued engagement through marketing
○ Rapid response funding for families
■ Kathy recommends putting $5,000 towards the
program initially and development of criteria to
expend the funds
■ Stacey agrees about creating a process for victim
response
○ Connection of resources
● TAP has expended resources from discretionary dollars for the
family situation and would like to be reimbursed by the commission
○ $1,000 to $2,000 more beyond initial ask
● Elliot asks about what role the Red Cross, Goodwill, etc. plays in the
above dynamic with TAP
● Joe proposes a Roanoke wide Rapid Response fund that is
coordinated by a local organization like TAP
○ Community Fund that other organizations may contribute to
as well as individuals
● Proposal for
○ Funds for rapid response: $5,000
○ Funds for marketing: $5,000
● Motions
○ Reimbursement of funding for TAP
■ Eilliot first motion, Nicole second - request passes
○ Family Services 8 week pilot
■ Stacey first motion, Tim second - request passes
Announcements ● Report from mini-grants at Sept meeting
● RCPS Back to School 9-12 at Patrick Henry Aug 21
○ Distribute pledge and locks
○ In all back to school packets with online component
● Groceries Not Guns Buyback Event – Saturday, August 21, 2021 –
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
● August 21, 2021 - Building Bridges over barriers: 11-4 Forest Park:
No guns just fun
● Commission Meeting – Tuesday, September 14, 2021 – 5:30 pm
● Stakeholder/Partner Meeting – Friday, September 17, 2021 –
8:30am; Nov 19th at 8:30
● Blue Ridge Behavioral Health - Safe Side Tactical - Sept 25th at
Wasena park
Ajournement 7:04 pm