At First Gun Violence Prevention Community Meeting in Brooklyn, Governor Cuomo Announces More Than 4,000 Jobs Available for At-Risk Youth in Emerging New York City Gun Violence Hot Spots

 

2,000 Summer Jobs Will Be Created for Youth in Gun Violence Hot Spots in New York City; 2,388 Long-Term Jobs Will Be Created in Partnership Consortium for Worker Education in New York City

At First in Series of Community Meetings, State and Community Leaders Agree on Initiatives to Respond to Ongoing Gun Violence in East Brooklyn

Key Initiatives Include Creating Jobs and Summer Programs for At-Risk Youth; Increasing Presence of Violence Interveners in Community; and Expanding Community Services and Assistance for Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Family Crisis

 At the first gun violence prevention community meeting in Brooklyn, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced more than 4,000 jobs will be available for at-risk youth in emerging gun violence hot spots in New York City. The state will provide funding to create 2,000 summer jobs for youth aged 15 to 24 in emerging gun violence hot spot areas in New York City to keep them employed until the start of school this year. The State is also partnering with Consortium for Worker Education to provide long-term jobs for 2,388 young people who are out of school and live in the neighborhoods in New York City most impacted by gun violence.

"Gun violence is a complex issue that needs a different response if we want to end it once and for all," Governor Cuomo said. "A key piece of this response is getting to young people before they enter the pipeline of the system and stopping the cycle of violence before it even starts. This can't just be one initiative - that's not going to work here - we need to empower community groups and give them the tools and resources they need to reach young people and intervene, and that's exactly what we're doing here in East Brooklyn. This is the first community in the state that we are reaching out to, and I believe the product of this meeting and the ones that come after will be saving young lives."

During this first gun violence prevention community meeting, the state and community leaders agreed on several initiatives to respond to the ongoing gun violence in the East Brooklyn community. The initiatives focus on engaging the most at-risk youth in cluster zones in employment and community activities, hiring new community-based gun violence interrupters, as well as assistance for mental health and substance use disorders. This was the first in a series of community meetings that will be held in emerging gun violence hot spots across the state. Last week, Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 211 declaring gun violence a disaster emergency and requiring New York State's Division of Criminal Justice Services to compile incident-level data provided by major police departments on a weekly basis so that it may be used by the newly established Office of Gun Violence Prevention to track emerging gun violence hot spots and deploy resources to areas most in need.

In today's meeting, specific steps to combat gun violence in East Brooklyn included:

1. Creating up to 900 jobs for youth in East Brooklyn, including 415 summer jobs and 485 long-term jobs placed by CWE;
2. Establishing summer programs for youth in East Brooklyn, including 100 dedicated events at Shirley Chisholm State Park;
3. Hiring new violence interveners to work at existing community intervention programs in the East Brooklyn community and increasing the intervener staff at Brookdale Hospital to allow for 24/7 coverage; and
4. Expanding community services and assistance for mental health support, substance abuse treatment and family crisis intervention.