Following a recent gun violence prevention community meeting for Suffolk County, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has announced 353 jobs will be available for at-risk youth in six ZIP codes that make up the zone. The ZIP codes are: 11704, 11706, 11717, 11777, 11798, and 11951.
The State will provide funding to create 213 summer jobs for youth aged 15 to 24 in this zone to keep them employed until the start of school this year. The State is also partnering with local workforce development boards to provide job training and placement into long-term jobs for 140 young people who are out of school and live in this zone.
"We have an obligation to protect our loved ones from becoming part of or getting hurt by gun violence, and that is why we are bringing together community leaders and figuring out the right solutions to this crisis," Governor Cuomo said. "Too many lives have already been lost or destroyed to gun violence, and we are determined to do everything we can to keep communities safe and whole."
Earlier this month, Governor Cuomo kicked off a series of community meetings that will be held in emerging gun violence hot spots across the state, where State officials and community leaders can carve out initiatives to address the ongoing gun violence. 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.
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 for Suffolk County, specific steps to combat gun violence included:
- Creating 353 jobs for youth, including 213 summer jobs and 140 long-term jobs placed in partnership with local workforce development boards;
- Establishing summer programs for youth, including more than 40 activities at Robert Moses, Belmont Lake, Sunken Meadow, and other state parks across Long Island this summer;
- Hiring new violence interveners to work at existing community intervention programs; and
- Expanding community services and assistance for mental health support, substance abuse treatment and family crisis intervention.
On July 6, Governor Cuomo declared the first-in-the-nation gun violence disaster emergency as part of a new, comprehensive strategy to build a safer New York. 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. The disaster emergency allows the State to expedite money and resources to communities so they can begin targeting gun violence immediately.