Residents Look to Curb Violence in Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — A group of Chattanooga residents is looking to curb some of the violence in the Scenic City.

On Saturday, members of the Citizen Safety Coalition split up into breakout sessions to outline their goals for the upcoming year.

They heard from a variety of speakers, from coalition leaders and police officers, to local pastors.

Mayor Andy Berke formed the program in April to get residents more involved in their communities, and to help young people stay involved in positive activities.

“When we have people that are willing to get involved on the front end, and then on the back end we don’t have to deal with a lot of the negative things that we see,” said Dr. Charles Mitchell, Citizen Safety Coalition Co-Chair. “We have more people that are willing to volunteer and mentor and do community walks and do positive initiatives in our community already, and influence our youth. The byproducts can be a safer community, better families, but then also too, better schools.” 

If you’d like to get involved with the coalition, go here: http://connect.chattanooga.gov/safe/.