There have been 192 murders in Baltimore City so far this year. That puts the city on pace to reach more than 300 murders by the end of the year for the seventh year in a row.
To help combat the violence and address the root causes, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott is announcing his Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan for the city.
The plan is broken up into three parts - public health approach, community engagement and inter-agency collaboration, as well as evaluation and accountability. These three pillars will be introduced throughout the day Friday.
The first, public health approach, is being discussed at 10:30 a.m. at Rose Street Community Center. The second, community engagement and inter-agency collaboration, will be discussed at 1:30 p.m. at Antonio's Barber Shop. Finally, evaluation and accountability, will be introduced at 3 p.m. at Coppin State University Talon Center.
A draft of this plan, the "violence prevention framework and plan" was introduced earlier this year. That's when Mayor Scott talked about the need for everyone to be involved in creating this plan.
"We need and we will have every single city agency across our city government involved. We need our community partners and grassroots organizations involved as I have been asking to be for decades," Scott explained at a March meeting.
He held nearly 40 public communityy sessions this year to hear directly from Baltimoreans. He wound up hearing from hundreds of people, which he says got his plan where it is today.
This is a five year plan for a better, safer Baltimore.
