What to Know
- Hundreds of jobs will be available for at-risk youth in Brooklyn, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday -- all in an attempt to curtail the spike in gun violence that has been plaguing the city in recent months.
- The 506 jobs will be available for at-risk youth in seven ZIP codes that make up the zone. The ZIP codes are: 11206, 11213, 11216, 11221, 11222, 11233 and 11238. The announcement comes following a gun violence prevention community meeting.
- According to the state, more meetings will take place around New York.
Hundreds of jobs will be available for at-risk youth in Brooklyn, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday -- all in an attempt to curtail the spike in gun violence that has been plaguing the city in recent months.
The 506 jobs will be available for at-risk youth in seven ZIP codes that make up the zone. The ZIP codes are: 11206, 11213, 11216, 11221, 11222, 11233 and 11238. The announcement comes following a gun violence prevention community meeting.
The state will provide funding to create 254 summer jobs for youth aged 15 to 24 in this zone to keep them employed until the start of school this year.
Additionally, the state announced it is partnering with the Consortium for Worker Education to provide long-term jobs for 252 young people who are out of school and live in this zone.
"Gun violence has claimed lives, broken families and destroyed communities across New York, and it demands our immediate attention," Cuomo said in a statement. "That's why we're creating thousands of jobs as part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce violence and improve the state's communities. These meetings bring important stakeholders to the table in a local setting to produce concrete solutions to these critical problems."
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At the first gun violence prevention community meeting last week, 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. According to the state, more meetings will take place around New York.
News
On July 6, Cuomo declared issued the first-in-the-nation Executive Order declaring gun violence in New York as a Disaster Emergency -- the first step in a comprehensive plan that aims to tackle the surge in gun violence throughout the state.
The disaster emergency status will allow the state to address the gun violence crisis by expediting money and resources to communities so they can begin targeting gun violence immediately.
This is the first step in a comprehensive plan Cuomo outlined composed of 7 key areas -- all with the aim of quelling the gun violence surge. The key areas are:
- Treat gun violence like the emergency public health it is;
- Target hotspots with data and science;
- Positive engagement for at-risk youth;
- Break the cycle of escalating violence;
- Get illegal guns off the streets;
- Keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people;
- Rebuild the police-community relationship
This new strategy treats gun violence as a public health crisis, using short-term solutions to manage the immediate gun violence crisis and reduce the shooting rate, as well as long-term solutions that focus on community-based intervention and prevention strategies to break the cycle of violence.
