Hello! We here at Safe & Sound Hillsborough bring you greetings during this Holiday season. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or any other special occasion. Whether you’re traveling on the road or staying local, we hope that you and your families remain safe and sound.
2022 brought us a little closer as we transitioned back to in-person events and meetings. And as we continue to work alongside our community to develop solutions to reduce and prevent violence, we realize that while there’s so much more work to do, we have to take a pause and recognize some of the work that has been done and the results that have come from it.
This year, we’ve provided mental health first aid training for free to over 100 individuals. We opened up our reporting center and help over 250 young individuals finish court ordered programming and stay out of trouble. We expanded services through the center to work with youth who are currently on probation to help them get back on the right track. We continued our community conversations to help lead and guide an action plan to reduce gun violence. We worked alongside partners to address social justice and equity in education and policy and finally, we partnered and provided funding support to multiple organizations so that we can continue to bring residents together with law enforcement, social service agencies and faith-based institutions.
I want to thank our leadership council, staff, community members and volunteers for helping us bring these solutions to the community and more importantly, I want to thank our youth and residents for trusting us along the way.
As we transition from 2022 to 2023, we will continue to work hard alongside our community to expand both programming and service areas. Be on the look out for our community calendar, PSAs and short films, and funding applications for gun violence prevention efforts and projects. We can’t do this work alone; we need your help. So please, get involved, sign up to be a mentor or volunteer, join one of our committees and please provide us feedback and ideas on how better to keep our youth safe and community connected.
So from our family to yours, Happy Holidays, have a happy new year, be safe and together, the village will win!