Columbus continues fight to slow violence in the city

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The City of Columbus' Office of Violence Prevention will be investing nearly $4 million throughout the rest of the year in key areas helping to slow violence. 

Leaders said the focus is on intervening in the violence cycle before it happens.  

Office of Violence Prevention Director Rena Shak said the office picked where to make these investments through research and community feedback, with the biggest chunks of money going toward fighting domestic violence and making more grant opportunities for community-based organizations.

Shak said the organization wants to make sure people are aware of the domestic violence resources available to help. She said research shows that domestic violence has increased recently in Columbus.

“What I think a lot of people find surprising is that the majority of the victims are not female and the majority is not intimate partner violence,” Shak said. “We do have those instances and of course they are very high lethality. I think when we generally think about domestic violence, that's where our minds immediately go to is a female victim and it being intimate partner, so meaning spousal or boyfriend, girlfriend, things like that. But what we're finding is that, actually, the majority of our homicides in 2025 are more familial violence, so I know that there was a tragic situation with a father and son.”

Shak said the office will also be launching a new violence prevention education campaign in June called Safer Together 614. She said this focuses on conversations between youth and adults about conflict resolution and healthy relationships.

The last area of investment is under the Columbus Violence Reduction strategy and it is about intervention. They are expanding their intervention program to add more life coaches and mentors.

“Right now, that program is doing an amazing job at stabilizing individuals with their emergency needs, so when we're asking individuals to trust us to take on the resources that we're providing in order to make a change for the better in their lives and step away from gang violence, step away from gun violence,” Shak said. “We're looking at that program and how we can expand, so this life coaching and mentoring piece will be a 12-to-18-month program where we will be providing trained professionals to walk alongside our participants.”

Sean Smith is the intervention manager for Columbus Violence Reduction, which was moved under the Office of Violence Prevention this year from the Department of Public Safety. Smith runs a program that works with people who are involved in crime or who have gang ties.

“I think, at the end of the day, these are people who care about their community, who they identify to be their community, and sometimes circumstance and life situations cause them to engage in behaviors that aren't always accepted,” Smith said.

Smith said that when he was a teenager, he got in some trouble but made the choice to turn his life around, as did the other intervention specialists.

“They five, ten, 15 years ago could have been a participant in CVR had the program been around, so they have what we call lived experience,” Smith said.

He said the funding will really help their mission.

“I think the immediate way in which you can kind of see some of the benefits are in the opportunities, the resources that are being provided to the participants,” Smith said. “One of the bigger things that I know director Shak has really been pushing lately is trying to assist with getting some of our participants who are qualified and who are prepared, maybe opportunities working with the city or some, you know, some good paying opportunities for them.”

Shak said the city's year-to-date homicide rate is the lowest it's been since 2013. She hopes these investments will keep the downward trend going.