Today, April 30, the City of Fayetteville held a Public Safety Summit at Fayetteville State University’s Rudolph Jones Student Center. This summit was designed to support the City's development of the Office of Community Safety (OCS) by beginning a broader discussion to address a range of public safety issues that are impacting Fayetteville and the country.
Fayetteville, along with other local and state partners participated in a facilitated discussion in order to come together and collaboratively discuss the four pillars of the OCS: violent crime intervention, youth intervention, mental health response and homelessness.
Dr. Gerald Tate, who currently serves as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Office of Violence Prevention, served as the overall facilitator for the summit with Capt. James Jones, Nichelle Gaines, David Curtis and Devon Newton all served as co-facilitators. Numerous other participants and partners, representing a variety of city and county agencies, provided input and guidance as well.
The issue is not necessarily a lack of resources, but often a lack of awareness and access to the resources that are already available. Tate emphasized how important it is that community members “know your ecosystem.” This sentiment encourages efforts to connect and refer the people in need with the resources they can benefit from. The discussion highlighted how many times emergency help may be sought, but if the right organizations aren’t brought in or aren’t able to provide services in a timely manner there are negative outcomes. This coordination of services is one of the biggest hurdles standing in the way of generating greater positive impact.
This is just the beginning of a collective effort to see that Fayetteville is a safer community for all who call it home.
For those who weren’t able to be at the event in person, the city live streamed the event on their Facebook page, Facebook.com/cityoffayettevillegovernment/.
To wrap up the first day, attendees were able to meet up for a social event at the Brad Halling American Whiskey Ko. in Southern Pines where a $10,000 check was presented to the Joint Special Operations Foundation for their scholarship fund. Photo pr
The three-story, 200,000 square-foot business incubator space is located at 420 Maiden Lane. The building features an elevator, construction has begun on handicap bathrooms for the first floor and the second and third floors feature window walls offering views of Segra Stadium.
Image provided by FTCCFocused on building the local workforce and streamlining the education process through real world learning, the Hope, Opportunity, Prosperity through Education Program at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), also kno