Community Safety
LaKenya Middlebrook, Director
[email protected]
865-215-3155
The Office of Community Safety was created in August 2021 with Mayor Indya Kincannon appointing LaKenya Middlebrook as the City’s first-ever Director of Community Safety.
Middlebrook and her office leads violence interruption strategies, coordinates safety innovation and collaboration among City Departments, and enhances partnerships with on-the-ground people and organizations who are working to make Knoxville safer.
Middlebrook has standing bi-weekly meetings with Mayor Kincannon and Chief Paul Noel, regularly scheduled meetings with the full cabinet, works closely with the City’s Community Empowerment Department and coordinates resources with others on the front lines working to keep our neighborhoods safe.
CITY GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Local organizations working to interrupt violence in Knoxville are invited to apply for grant funding now available through the City of Knoxville Office of Community Safety.
Summer Break Opportunity Youth Micro-Grant
(Deadline at 4:30 p.m. on April 6, 2023)
Youth Violence Prevention Week Micro-Grant
(Deadline at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2023)
Spring Break Opportunity Youth Engagement Micro-Grant
(Deadline at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2023)
CITY GRANT IMPACT REPORTS
2022 Spring Break & Summer Opportunity Youth Grants Impact Report [PDF]
Community Organizations throughout Knoxville that received the Spring Break or Summer
Opportunity Youth Grants (SBOYG/ SOYG) created opportunities serving as a first line of
defense for Knoxville’s Opportunity Youth, reminding communities that its Opportunity Youth
—primarily Black, brown, and low-income children—deserve the opportunity to safely play and
have fun alongside other children as a means of preventing violence.
2022 Youth Violence Prevention Week Grant Impact Report [PDF
Awareness of youth violence is key so
communities can better support young people
throughout Knoxville, in turn helping them exist in
healthy, thriving spaces to be the engaging,
productive individuals we hope for them to be. It is
critical for the City of Knoxville to make sure we are engaging our young people, listening to them,
creating pathways for them to be involved, and
elevating not only the issues that are important to
them but also the experiences that are impacting
them every day. It is also important that we work
with community-based organizations that are on
the ground working with young people and their
families each day. These types of engagement are
what make YVWP so critical to addressing violence
in the City of Knoxville and beyond.