Project Safe Neighborhoods Community Outreach and Education Program

Our state's flagship institution, the University of Kentucky (UK), includes in its external mission enhancing information flow and community service both locally throughout the state. Its contacts provide a unique opportunity to bring to the table those people who can most effectively conduct research, create materials and disseminate information. The University's resources span the state geographically, intellectually, socially and legally. The proposed Fayette County Community Outreach Program for Anti-Gun! Anti- Violence Juvenile Education is a multi-dimensional aggressive local effort to educate and empower Middle and High School students and raise awareness the community at large to understand the seriousness of gun use and join together to reduce firearm-related crime. Because gun use takes away life (both the potential for it and the perception of it), the emphasis is on gun safety education and gun crime prevention at the local level, and the lifelong consequences of firearm-related violent crime. The College of Education's Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling at UK has several ongoing projects which speak directly to this issue. One of them in particular, its partnership in the highly respected collaborative that is the Kentucky Center for School Safety (KCSS), provides services in research, promotion, programming and information dissemination to educators, youth, law enforcement and media audiences through virtual and tangible resources. In fact, KCSS is the 2002 Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Media Outreach and Community Engagement grantee for the Eastern District of Kentucky, receiving a national PSN award for the collaboration (see attached documentation). Several pieces of documentation on this partnership are included here. This, among other things, uniquely qualifies it to carry out this program.