(New York, NY, 05/17/2022) – On Wednesday, May 11th, the Islamic Leadership Council of New York met with interfaith community leaders in Ozone Park in a community townhall to discuss proactive measures to prevent community violence. In coordination with grassroots organization, Cityline Ozone Park Community Patrol (COPCP), the townhall was held in Medina Hall with invited guest speaker Ellen Ritz, from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to facilitate the conversation. This townhall was made possible through a grant award to the Islamic Leadership Council of New York from the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes to work on “developing and coordinating community-driven prevention strategies to address biases fueling such crimes, and fostering healing for victims and their communities” through non law-enforcement deterrence.
This program is made possible by an Innovation Grant awarded by the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. For more information, visit http://nyc.gov/stophate
This townhall focused on topics of creating safe environments for children and adolescents through parental and community support and community approaches to dealing with mental illness. From listening to our community leaders, one thing has been made clear: communities and homes must invest in their children. Investing in children includes parental classes on childhood/adolescent development, community activities, homework help, intramural sports, understanding the emotional needs of children, and more. Creating healthy and secure environments for all children corresponds with the development of mentally healthy and functioning adults and safer communities.
The Islamic Leadership Council of New York plans to continue these community initiatives as part of its organizational mission to empower Muslim communities to make positive change.
Interfaith groups in attendance included: Al Aman Masjid; Al Furqan Jame Masjid; Baitun Noor Masjid; Nativity Church Members of Our Neighbor Civic; Bhuvaneshar Mandir Temple; Shri Satyam Mandir Temple; Bangladeshi American Community Development & Youth Service (BACDYS); Richard David (South Ozone Park Democratic District Leader), Cityline Ozone Park Civilian Patrol (COPCP)