Westside : STOPPING VIOLENCE

Santa Monica and Malibu city and school officials have teamed up with a handful of nonprofit agencies to form a coalition that aims to reduce violence within their communities, organizers announced.

The Alliance for a Non-Violent Community, a coalition of members from more than a dozen private and civic organizations, will focus on education, community involvement and enacting legislation as a way of creating a safe environment, officials said. The group--modeled after Pasadena’s Coalition for a Non-Violent City--has been meeting since late last year.

“We wanted to respond to the epidemic of violence in the country,” said Pam Brady, founder of the coalition.

Besides city officials and law enforcement officers from Santa Monica and Malibu, the alliance includes Santa Monica College, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and the League of Women Voters.

Brady, a school board member, said the group can prevent each agency from duplicating each others’ efforts.

Although Brady said the group is not going to announce its long-term specific goals, it is considering hosting a town hall meeting on violence in the media and its effect on adolescents.