The 9th Annual Cities United Convening to be held at Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, October 26-28

BALTIMORE, MD. (Wednesday, October 26, 2022) - Mayor Brandon M. Scott is excited to announce that the 9th Annual Cities United Convening will return to Baltimore today, October 26, through October 28 after two years of virtual meetings due to the pandemic. This year's gathering will bring together more than 450 leaders from government, community-based, philanthropic, public safety and faith-based organizations who are working to reduce homicides and shootings among young Black men and boys by 50 percent.

"We know that gun violence is a public health epidemic that is not unique to Baltimore. Cities across the country feel its impacts every day, which is why it's so important that we come together to discuss how we can keep our communities safe," said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. "This convening is about bringing together leaders and community members from across our nation who truly want to enact change and create safer and healthier communities. It is going to take all of us to end gun violence and Baltimore is proud to stand in solidarity and partnership with Cities United and all participants of this convening for the future of our communities."

Aligned with Mayor Scott's work to end gun violence in the city of Baltimore, this two-and-a-half-day event will be presented in collaboration with Scott's public safety agency, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Under the leadership of Director Shantay Jackson, MONSE is charged with empowering community partners and city agencies to play a more active role in the co-production of public safety and prevention of violence programming through a trauma-responsive, healing-centered, and equity-based approach for the benefit of all Baltimoreans and through the implementation of Scott's five-year Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan.

This past April, Mayor Scott laid out his strategy to expand Baltimore's Community Violence Intervention (CVI) ecosystem, including an in-depth report outlining the ways his administration is investing in trauma-informed, community-centered, and evidence-based public health interventions to stem the tide of violence through the establishment of a comprehensive and multifaceted CVI ecosystem - an approach supported by the Biden administration and national public safety experts.

"Baltimore is honored to host mayors, community leaders and experts from across the country to share in this convening around community violence intervention," said Director Shantay Jackson of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. "Hosting this convening is a true testament to Baltimore's national leadership in this work and we look forward to the continued partnership with cities across the county as we all work to reduce violence and cultivate safer, healthier communities."

As they work to build safe, healthy, and hopeful communities, leaders will convene to engage in purposeful, solution-oriented, and thought-provoking sessions, local site visits at John Hopkins, LifeBridge Health's Center for Hope, and others, plus workshops centered around this year's team: Elevate Our Collective Power.

Alongside Cities United founders Dr. William Bell, Shawn Dove, and former City of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, this year's agenda will feature special guest speakers such as Steve and Connie Ballmer of Ballmer Group.

Registration for this year's conference is sold out.