Update: May 2, 2012: 5:23 p.m

Members of movement trying to stop youth violence in Columbia are planning events for the summer and the rest of the year.

Silence The Violence volunteers are looking for new activities and alternatives that would help prevent youth crimes including murder.

Organizers said they need more volunteers to act as mentors and role models.

Stop The Violence volunteers continue to work out the details of their plan to prevent youth violence in Columbia.

Stop The Violence organizers got some input from some of Columbia’s youth as well as from black community leaders.  These concerned citizens are working on a calendar of summer events.  They hope their ideas keep Columbia’s troubled teenagers busy during the summer when young people have more time on their hands.

Silence The Violence organizer Lorenzo Lawson said, “It’s more than lip service.  We’re going to have to provide for these young people.  Whenever they decide that they don’t want to sell dope anymore, then we are going to have to provide jobs and opportunities.  It’s going to take the business community and the educational community.  It’s going to take the city.”

Lawson and other community leaders created a new group of volunteers called “Interrupters of Violence”.  Lawson said members of that subgroup will work directly with Columbia’s troubled youth.

Silence The Violence organizers said their plan to prevent youth violence in Columbia won’t work overnight.  Volunteers said it will take the entire community to make their plan a success for years to come.

Columbia’s Silence The Violence movement is a response to several recent shooting deaths involving teenagers and young people.

Original Story:

Members of a movement sparked by recent violence in Columbia are holding an organizational meeting tonight.

Silence The Violence volunteers want to stop the murders of teenagers in the community.

The group recently held a march in Downtown Columbia in response to the shooting deaths of several young people.

Organizers are scheduled to plan events for the summer and the rest of year during tonight’s meeting.

Silence The Violence organizer Lorenzo Lawson said, “If we don’t do something, this summer it’s going to be bloody.  It’s going to be bloody.  We’re going to have to get out there and show them that we care about them enough to take a stand.”

The Silence The Violence organizational meeting is open to the public.

It begins at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Columbia’s Armory Sports Center on the corner of 7th and Ash Streets.