ONE Lexington, a city initiative working to address gun violence impacting youth and young adults, will present its 2025 year-end report before Urban County Councilmembers this week.
During the Council's March 17th Social Services and Public Safety Committee, ONE Lexington Director Devine Carama will make the case that the initiative is reducing gun violence by citing declining gun homicide and shooting statistics among 10- to 29-year-olds, its target demographic.
What work is ONE Lexington doing in the community?
As a community initiative within Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton's office, ONE Lexington works to address the root causes of gun violence, not just its symptoms. It does this by leveraging government resources and community partnerships through several programs.
Some examples include crisis response offering immediate support for victims of gun violence, neighborhood engagement walks, in-school mentoring, grant and scholarship awards, conflict resolution, youth trauma and grief trainings, walking students home from school and coordinating weekly violence intervention team meetings among community partners.
ONE Lexington spent a total of $601,279 in 2025, according to a breakdown of its expenses included in the year-end report.
What impact is ONE Lexington making?
According to presentation materials, Carama will tell Councilmembers that the initiative has contributed to a decline in shootings and gun-related homicides among young people.
Total shootings and homicides in the aggregate have fallen from peaks in 2020 and 2021, and statistics have improved in the following ways, according to ONE Lexington's presentation materials:
Lexington homicides by gun (victims ages 10-29)
2025 (to date): 10 homicides
4-year average (to date): 15 homicides
Reported residents shot (victims ages 10-29)
2025 (to date): 32 shootings
4-year average (to date): 69 shootings
Lexington total shooting statistics (shootings and gun-related homicides, victims ages 10-29)
2025 (to date): 42 residents injured or killed by gunfire
4-year average (to date): 83 residents injured or killed by gunfire
ONE Lexington conducted a total of 18 youth and young adult conflict mediations in 2025, with 16 taking place in the community and 2 in the local school system. It reports a total of 93 crisis response referrals for the year, along with 5,635 total engagements with youth and young adults. Most of those engagements took place through the initiative's in-school mentoring service, community outreach, and school assemblies.
ONE Lexington will present its full 2025 year-end report during the Council's Social Services and Public Safety Committee meeting, which takes place at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 17th in the Government Center's Council Chamber.
Aaron covers the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council as a City Hall Reporter for CivicLex. His background is in Service Journalism, and he’s passionate about helping Lexington residents stay informed about happenings in local government.
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