{"id":161866,"date":"2026-02-19T23:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161866\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:27:06","slug":"orlando-leaders-call-for-more-youth-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161866\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando leaders call for more youth programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orlando police say crime is down citywide<\/a>, but a shooting that injured four young people in Parramore over the weekend is renewing concerns about youth violence and prevention.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Four juveniles were injured in a shooting near a Parramore restaurant over the weekend<\/p>\n

Community leaders say mentoring and youth programs are key to preventing violence<\/p>\n

City officials report overall crime in Orlando is down more than 20%, but more work is needed<\/p>\n

The shooting happened near a popular restaurant in the Parramore neighborhood, Sister Soul Food<\/a>, leaving four juveniles hospitalized and residents shaken. While investigators continue working to determine what led up to the incident, community leaders say the focus now is on stopping similar violence before it happens again.<\/p>\n

For Bishop Kelvin Cobaris, the incident hit close to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am definitely appalled with what took place here in the shooting here in Parramore,\u201d Cobaris says. \u201cParramore is a beautiful community, and we have worked diligently to make sure that it stays up.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes this case especially troubling is that children were involved, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure that there are activities to mentor these kids, to get them off of the streets, to keep them involved in positive things,\u201d Cobaris says.<\/p>\n

City leaders say they are working to provide that support through multiple youth-focused programs. Orlando District 5 Commissioner Shan Rose says the city takes a \u201cwraparound\u201d approach to helping teens who might be at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we\u2019re intentional on is the full wraparound services,\u201d Rose says. \u201cHow do we make sure we\u2019re getting you to school? How do we make sure you\u2019ve got clothes and food?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose says those services are designed to remove barriers that can prevent students from staying engaged in school and community programs.<\/p>\n

City officials also point to encouraging trends in overall crime. From 2023 to 2025, Orlando police report a 22% decrease in total crime. Homicides also dropped significantly, reaching their lowest level in decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only had 10 homicides, which was our lowest number recorded in 50 years,\u201d Rose says. \u201cBetween our programming and the Orlando Police Department, there\u2019s a true niche.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite those improvements, community leaders say the shooting in Parramore shows more work remains.<\/p>\n

Cobaris says prevention starts with strong relationships between adults, parents and young people, and with teaching teens how to manage conflict without violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to realize there\u2019s a better way to handle conflict,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is not a video game. If you shoot somebody and take their life, there\u2019s no reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

City leaders say they plan to continue expanding youth programs and are working to establish additional middle school initiatives to reach students earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orlando police say crime is down citywide, but a shooting that injured four young people in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,2967,3949,770,265,4995,115,768,139,141,140,277],"class_list":{"0":"post-161866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-public-safety","10":"tag-bryanna-howard","11":"tag-community-news","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-crime-safety","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-orange-county-fl","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-orlando-headlines","18":"tag-orlando-news","19":"tag-public-safety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}