Bay Area

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks Holds Public Hearing on Impact of Gun Violence on Youth Mental Health

Published

5 years ago

December 12, 2019

More than two dozen community leaders, advocates, academics and medical health experts recently convened a public hearing to discuss the issue of gun violence and how it affects youth’s mental health, during a meeting facilitated by California Assemblymember (AD 15) Buffy Wicks.

“The purpose of the hearing was to explore the rise in mental health issues in youth across the county, and the role gun violence play in this troubling epidemic,” said Wicks, chair of the Assembly’s Select Committee on Youth Mental Health. “If a child grows up in a community plagued by gun violence, the likelihood they’ll suffer from mental health issues skyrockets.

“The research on this is both troubling and extensive with more than 34 million U.S. children suffering from this kind of toxic stress nationwide,” added Wicks. “We’ve identified gun violence as an underlying cause. Now is the time to start identifying solutions that will provide more resources and counseling to confront these issues.”

Wicks has a personal interest in eradicating gun violence. Her husband, Peter Ambler, was the legislative director for former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when she was shot in the head on Jan. 8, 2011. The gunman shot 24 people, killing six and wounding 18 during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Ariz., in the Tucson metropolitan area.

During Giffords’ recovery, Ambler helped manage Giffords’ office while she was in the hospital. He later co-founded and became Executive Director of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy organization.

Each speaker at the hearing talked about gun violence and how it affects victims and families, noting that whenever there’s a shooting, it is not only tragic, but the aftermath also impacts the community as a whole. Panel members echoed each other’s remarks discussing how Black and Brown communities across the nation, who are mostly affected and experience these issues on a regular basis, don’t get the attention they deserve.

“Looking at the equity rate of gun violence in our communities, it reveals that this problem is 10 times higher in minority neighborhoods than in white communities,” said Wicks. “This is unacceptable. There is no reason why children in urban communities should have to deal with these issues.

“We cannot let this be the case going forward. I will remain on the forefront of this issue and will push for more funding for programs to help alleviate the existing problems of gun violence and its effect on youth’s mental health.”

Currently, there are 3 million children and teens who witness shootings across the country,” said Wicks. “Fortunately, those numbers have slightly subsided, which is attributed to prevention and intervention programs. In Oakland alone, there has been a 66 percent reduction of gun violence in the past year. However, we still need to continue to provide more mental health services for those adversely affected by gun violence.”

Wicks noted that the Assembly Select Committee on Youth Mental Health will continue to work closely with community-based programs that know the community well, as those programs are demonstrating successes.

Speakers on the panel included local and national representatives from Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, Brady United Against Gun Violence and March for Our Lives.

Medical experts included representatives from the UC Firearm Violence Research Center, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, The Permanente Medical Group and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Local advocates included representatives from the Children’s Defense Fund, CA, RYSE Youth Center, California Children’s Trust, Youth ALIVE!, Public Health Advocates, Californians for Safety and Justice.

Assemblymember Wicks represents California’s 15th District which includes all or portions of the cities of Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo, Pinole, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington and Piedmont. To learn more about Assemblymember Wicks and her work, visit a15.asmde.org.

Saskia Hatvany

Posts by Saskia Hatvany

Related Topics:Buffy Wicks Casas Adobes Clifford L. Williams Gun violence U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Youth Mental Health

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.