Authorizing City Council's Committee on Public Safety to hold public hearings focusing primarily on testimony of Philadelphia youth and young adults regarding gun related and violent crime in our communities, so as to include their experiences and views in developing plans, actions and policy to reduce or eliminate these occurrences and their horrific impact on our young citizens and communities.

WHEREAS, Statistics and reports continue to show that the greater majority of those persons involved in or victims of gun related and other violent crime in our City are teens and/or under the age of thirty; and

WHEREAS, Many legislators, community leaders, local law enforcement officials and others have gathered to discuss techniques and strategies to stop gun related and other violent crime that has devastated or taken the lives of an unacceptable number of Philadelphia’s youth and young adults; and

WHEREAS, The purpose of these meetings and conferences is to develop, implement and support all plans and efforts to reduce the level of gun related and other violent crime that is horrifying all Philadelphians; and

WHEREAS, Initiatives and programs like the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, Don’t Fall Down in the Hood, The Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, the Safe Neighborhood Initiative, the Community Education and Involvement Program, and others, specifically target the City’s most dangerous and at-risk younger citizens for intensive treatment and monitoring, employing persons with the training required to work with local, state and federal law enforcement, probation and parole officials to pr5ovide services and programming for at-risk or offending teens and young adults embedded in the criminal justice system for gun related and other violent crimes; and

WHEREAS, It is critical and appropriate for any public policy, action or plan to consider the perspectives, experiences and views of those most involved with and affected by the issues they attempt to address; and

Whereas, Youth and young and young adults participating in these programs and who represent every sector of our City have called out for an opportunity to recount, and have recorded in a official public forum, their experiences and express their views associated with this urgent and critical public safety matter; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the Council Committees on Public Safety to hold public hearings focusing primarily on the testimony of Philadelphia youth regarding gun related and violent crime in our communities, so as to include their experiences and views in developing plans, actions and policy to reduce or eliminate these occurrences and their horrific impact on City youth and communities.

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