Trustees OK $7.8M for team center

Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees voted Friday to move forward with upgrades to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center as well as to acquire a Polaris-area building for the university’s medical center.

The updates to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the football team’s practice facility at 2491 Olentangy River Road, will cost $7.8 million.

BREAD is a faith-based social-justice organization made up of 40 congregations and 20,000 members.

BREAD researched an intervention model created by David Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities based at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York. The model, when executed with precision and with adequate resources and strong community buy-in, has helped to reduce violent crime in some cities, experts say. There are 30 cities across the country that are using the plan, according to the Safe Communities’ website.

“I’m confident we’re going to be successful in getting this initiative going,” said Mary Counter, who cochairs the crime and violence steering committee for BREAD.

A few years ago, BREAD members were asked for feedback on what issue to tackle.

“We heard they were concerned about gun violence in their neighborhood. You’re afraid for your children. You’re afraid for yourself. What can we do about that?” Counter said.

Under the initiative,

the county’s adult probation department and the Columbus Division of Police Criminal Intelligence Unit, which investigates gang crime, will identify individuals on probation for violent crimes.

Those people will be invited to a meeting, known as a “call-in,” and offered help to change their lives by being matched with services, such as finding jobs, counseling or learning life skills. They also will hear from respected community leaders, as well as people affected by violent crime, such as a mother who lost her child to violence.

“Oftentimes, I just think they are afraid and they’re just looking for a way out,” Counter said.

If the people chosen to participate decline the help and continue to commit violent crimes, then probation terms will be imposed and they will be prosecuted by federal authorities.

“It’s a carrot and stick approach,” Speaks said.

The initiative, still in the planning stages, will use key parts of Kennedy’s model, though Columbus will create its own version, Speaks said.

“I’m comfortable we can do our own rendition of it,” said Speaks, who hopes to have the first call-in sometime this fall. Probation

officers and criminal intelligence unit investigators will be following up with the individuals each week.

Police Chief Kim Jacobs said in a written statement: “The Division is looking and has looked at this and other initiatives to reduce violence. We continue to study what has worked, and hasn’t, in other cities. We also will continue to work with community members who want to be a part of the solution.”

Of the plan, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Ron O’Brien said, “I think it’s designed to focus on offenders who are amenable to options ... to get services that would help take them out of the criminal arena.

“It also has the hammer if they don’t want to do that,” he said.

Speaks doesn’t anticipate the initiative costing money, but said it’s coordinating existing resources to make the effort work.

To those who question why help should be offered to individuals with violent records, Speaks said, “We believe the recidivism potential is significantly higher for those folks. That is why we’re investing the resources.”