February 3, 2026 |City of Lynn, City Services, News, Public Safety, Youth

City of Lynn Launches Youth Safety and Opportunity Collaborative

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From Mayor Nicholson’s office: The City of Lynn invites the public to attend a call to action event to reduce youth violence in our community.

Over the past three years, the City of Lynn has faced a youth violence crisis. While trends are improving, the City is taking proactive steps to address the root causes following a year-long analysis completed by an expert on community violence, Social Contract, LLC. The culmination of that year-long work is a report called the Community Violence Reduction Plan, that includes perspectives from youth, and testimonies from our community about what we could do to significantly reduce violence.

To support the implementation of this report, Mayor Nicholson is proudly launching the Youth Safety and Opportunity Collaborative (Y-SOC), a new leadership body bringing together law enforcement, service providers, elected officials, and those with lived experience to:

• Realize our comprehensive Violence Reduction Plan
• Break silos between organizations to support families
• Ensure our work is community-centered and evidence-based
• Build a future where every young person in Lynn can thrive and have opportunities

The event will highlight where we’ve been, and our future goals, as well as include remarks from key stakeholders, highlighting the collaborative efforts to improve safety in the City of Lynn.

SPEAKERS:

• Mayor Jared Nicholson, City of Lynn
• Paul F. Tucker, Essex County District Attorney
• Christopher Reddy, Lynn Police Chief
• Faustina Cuevas, Chief of Wellbeing and DEI, City of Lynn
• Antonio Gutierrez, Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy, Chair of Y-SOC
• Ruth Zakarin, Chief Executive Officer, MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
• Lynn Families Impacted by Community Violence