Columbus' Office of Violence Prevention looks at new safety efforts

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Leaders from Columbus' Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) recently got back from a trip to the White House where they said they learned from other offices of violence prevention.

“This really is a very quick movement that is gaining traction really quickly across the nation," said Rena Shak, Executive Director of the Columbus OVP.

Columbus' OVP was formed in March 2023. Shak said there were 21 similar offices in 2021 and there are now 60, including Columbus.

“That's the benefit of this is that we’re able to talk to different OVPs and offices that do this work who are more well established," she said.

Shak said it was especially helpful to learn from offices from cities of similar size with similar violence rates. 

“The key to all of this is making sure what we are implementing is right for our city and so what we learn in being able to network with all of these other offices of violence prevention is just the little ways they tweak these strategies or they tweak these methods to fit their cities," Shak said.

Since its creation, Shak has said one of her office's main tasks is taking inventory of what anti-violence programs already exist in Columbus and their effectiveness. It'll be getting a hand in doing that. City Council this week approved $150 thousand for The OSU Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Evaluation Studies (HOPES), to help with that work. 

"It would be foolish, in my opinion, to have us doing so much work here in the community and not bringing in the experts who actually know what they’re doing when it comes to measurement and analysis," Shal said. "It would be easier for us to just take a subjective view of some of these programs and say oh that's not working or that is working but we want to be looking at it objectively according to best practices and scientific based analysis tools so that we have one frame of measurement for all of the programming going forward."

Homicide numbers are down about 50% from the same time last year, according to numbers from the Columbus Division of Police. Historically, violence picks up during the warmer months. 

"My message would just be to take a second, if things are escalating take a second and really try to employ de-escalation tactics. It's a lot easier to take a breath and walk away than it is to take back a life that may be gone," Shak said. "The effects of violence, especially gun violence are so far reaching, it is so much easier to just take a minute and walk away."