WARREN - "The Path to Community Change" is the theme of a community program open to the public, showing ways people can work with local law enforcement to improve their neighborhoods.

The program, will include ways to interact appropriately with police departments and discuss citizen roles and responsibilities, will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at the YWCA Warren, 375 N. Park Ave. To register, call 330-373-1010.

Members of the Warren Community Collaborative Against Violence, which formed this spring, met recently to discuss plans for future events and programs for adults and youth, such as this. The committee includes representatives from different neighborhood associations and organizations.

Bob Weitzel, chairman of board of directors for the Northwest Neighborhood Association, said he would like to see different neighborhood groups come together and be involved with helping to make the community safer.

Shari Harrell, executive director of the YWCA, said the YWCA is a catalyst in bringing the groups together for one-on-one communication.

"We want to address violence prevention and other issues affecting the city from all angles," she said.

Police officer John Marhulik said he would like to see more youth and young adults involved. "The police want to build a bridge to the youth and create trust," he said.

Michele Schmader, program director at the YWCA, said she would like to get representatives from different neighborhood groups and organization to take part in a survey of what issues they would like to discuss at workshops.

"What are the needs in your neighborhood? We want to empower neighborhoods to deal with violence and criminal activity. People can come to the workshops to learn what they can be doing to help stop the violence," Schmader said.

Harrell said workshops will deal with violence prevention. She said the neighborhood groups are the mechanism to get the message out and get as many people involved as possible.

"We need to funnel the information to the neighborhood groups to make this a safer community," Weitzel said.

Planned for August is a workshop on anti-violence for youth with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative. Harrell said workshop will include how youth can get involved in their neighborhoods.

She said other future workshops can involve the police department and Someplace Safe, to show how to support families of victims.

Vince Peterson, a pastor and probation officer, suggested taking programs to the schools to help make an impact on the youth in make them feels safe.

''We want to educate a mass audience at one venue," he said,

Marhulik said it is important for young adults to get the message about violence prevention, since statistic show the leading cause of death for black males ages 14 to 25 is homicide.

Harrell said she hopes the first workshops builds interest for future series and programs in the fall.

The next committee meeting is 1 p.m. August 5 at the YWCA.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com