PUEBLO — Pueblo is taking a stride towards decreasing the amount of kids being involved in crimes, and the city is getting extra guidance to do it.
It is one of 13 cities internationally being chosen for the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University’s 2022 Innovation Training program.
"With young people, I think there is an opportunity to change that behavior, but we're looking obviously for some innovative ways to get that done," says Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar.
Mayor Gradisar says children getting involved in gang activity is a major concern for him.
"We've got young people ,15 years old, driving cars with assault rifles in their laps."
Amanda Daflos, Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, says they received close to 50 application for the 2022 program.
"We select cities through a competitive process, and we select cities that we think would benefit from the training in a way that would be really meaningful and that have problems, if you will, or issues that they're going to tackle through the training in a really meaningful way."
City employees from a variety of agencies, including Officers with the Pueblo Police Department, will spend the next year getting hands-on training from experts.
"We've seen cities really tackle a range of issues and so we feel confident that in the case of Pueblo, they'll really be able to benefit from the training and apply really some of the tools and also lessons learned from other cities," said Daflos.
The city does not receive any funding from, or for the program.
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