WARREN - A vigil for shooting victim Lloyd McCoy will be held at 6 p.m. June 1 at the Packard Music Hall.

Shari Harrell and Michele Schmader, both with the Warren YWCA, said the Warren community has been coping with the loss of an innocent child.

The newly formed Warren Community Collaborative Against Violence is asking all parents, neighbors, businesses and concerned adults to unite against violence and maintain a safe community for children. The vigil is in collaboration with the Warren schools, city officials, police, neighborhood associations, churches and other organizations.

The vigil will support the McCoy family and commemorate the life of Lloyd McCoy, 11, who died from complications that resulted from a drive-by shooting, Harrell said.

Harrell, YWCA executive director, said the group wants to address the concerns of violence.

"The committee will focus on combating violence and providing education through working with the police department, our schools and the community,'' Harrell said.

Miriam Fife, a victims' advocate, said too many "innocent victims" are dying because of violence.

Schmader, program development director, said the YWCA and Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown staff and volunteers held a Boys Night, which focused on their perception of the mounting violence within their communities and their roles in preventing it. More than 40 boys from the local area attended.

"I was immensely impressed with the Warren boys who attended the event. They were respectful and active participants in all activities. They were willing to share their feelings about the loss of their classmate from Willard Avenue K-8 School and spoke honestly about how this incident has impacted their lives," Schmader said.

The boys shared that they have been witnesses to teen relationship abuse but did not feel it their business to step in when a friend or classmate is involved in an abusive relationship, she said.

"We must educate youth that remaining a silent witness to peer and dating violence is affirming to the abuser,'' she said.

A Girls Night Out is being planned for June covering dating violence from a female perspective.

Marisa Wiery, who volunteered for the boys' program, said many of the attendees said they had experienced a loss from some form of violence and some were hurt because of violence. She said some spoke of individuals who had died from suicide.

"For many of them violence is something they have experienced and become like a normal part of their lives," she said.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com