Everyone in Asheville deserves to be safe! True safety identifies community needs and utilizes the correct tools. A narrow definition of public safety limits results and creates new problems–and it’s really expensive. Instead, we need a public safety response that works to keep everyone safe, which means:

• Implementing an Office of Community Safety and HEART Program as outlined here, deploying first responders with the right tools and training to calls for service around substance use, homelessness, and mental health crises;
• Prioritizing living wages and safe working conditions for first responders;
• Acting on recommendations in the National Alliance to End Homelessness report to reduce homelessness;
• Advancing Complete Streets Policy and safe design speed standards so all commuters get to their destination safely;
• Reinstating the Strategic Partnership Funds for youth advocacy groups because our kids matter to us and we’re invested in a hopeful future; and
• Engaging the Community Health Workers organizing to prevent gun violence and intimate partner violence, and facilitating healing for residents, families and their communities.