Editor of La Prensa
Old West End (OWE) Festival 2026
Editorial by Dr. Linda Alvarado-Arce
(Toledo, Ohio)- As I leave New York City for Toledo, I am saddened to read and hear from 5:37 pm., nonstop, to the present, on the television, my social media, and on my phone, from texts to emails, of the shooting that occurred in the Old West End (OWE) Festival in Toledo, Ohio. The OWE festival is the festival that kicks off all the other festivals for the summer in and around Toledo. It is a festival I have faithfully attended annually since my move to Toledo in the mid-90s. A festival where I have bought things like the Corian kitchen countertop that my children ate off every day, to pieces of art made by local artists, and food from a person’s house or a food truck. I have taken friends, encouraged family to attend, and even volunteered at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) table, doing arts and crafts with small children. I have had some crazy nights there, dancing, singing, and made so many new friends at this festival. I still have friends who live in that neighborhood and raise their children there.
So, when I read the article, “Mayor says Toledo must rethink large events after Old West End festival shooting” in the Toledo Blade (June 7, 2026) by Alice Momany, I found issues with the Mayor’s suggestions. His suggestions were to have 1) “a stronger curfew,” 2) “metal detectors or some sort of scanning or bag checks at the gates of our church festivals,” and 3) “security cameras at events.” While possibly also making everyone show some sort of I.D. with their age on it to get into events, and if you are a juvenile, you would be required to be accompanied by an adult. I don’t know about you, but my parents ran a Taco Truck, and some of my best friends I met running around the festivals while my parents worked the food truck.
When I was the Executive Director for the Board of Community Relations (BCR) for the City of Toledo, we didn’t blame the parents or the youth; we [the BCR Board] worked with the Mayor’s office and the community to curb gun violence and lower homicide rates. We walked the streets with Community Service Officers who work/ed for the Toledo Police Department (TPD). We even did prayer circles throughout the city with the police and clergy/pastors who stepped up to the call to action to talk with the youth and their parents, while also keeping a log of everything they told us they needed and wanted to make Toledo and themselves better.
The Mayor’s Coalition for Hope (MCH), under Mayor Bell, EMPOWERED OUR COMMUNITY with action-oriented solutions and support while reducing youth violence. Not just after a mass shooting, for concern about how this incident might have on attracting and increasing the city’s population, or as a talking point. It focused on communication, coordination, and education. The efforts were aimed at improving the quality of life and overall safety for ALL residents in the City of Toledo.
The MCH had 6 areas of focus. The first one, 1) was Education. This area promoted positive changes to our value systems, intended to disrupt cultures of violence and raise awareness of available resources and alternative opportunities to deter violent crime. It sought to create a community where individuals become critical thinkers and are aware of the risks of engaging in violence, so they can make informed and educated decisions. The second area of focus (or committee) was the 2) Community Mobilization piece, which focused on grassroot recruitment, events, and service coordination, while aiming to address the problems of historically marginalized families and at-risk youth by creating positive change and promoting non-violent alternatives for solving problems and resolving conflicts. By mobilizing the community, we encouraged and supported opportunities for citizens, groups, and agencies to come together for information dissemination, gatherings, and the connecting of services.
The third area of focus was the 3) Faith-Based pillar. This was the heart of the program. It engaged the faith community, our faith leaders, in efforts to reduce youth violence and promote nonviolence. This meant that in response to shootings and support for high-risk youth and their families, our faith-based leaders would mobilize our community to respond physically and verbally. The vision was to have communities where faith-based leaders exercise the influence of their positions, as strong moral voices, to preach nonviolence within their congregations and communities affected by violence.
Additionally, this program used a 4) Restorative Justice lens and practice throughout the community, versus the punitive legalistic system we currently have in our judicial system. The MCH would be a community-wide, living, breathing, strategic plan with action items and timelines that would focus on the prevention, intervention, and reduction of gun violence and other violent crimes, i.e., armed robberies, homicides, shootings, assaults, and domestic violence. The “Restorative Justice” model/process balances the victim, the offender, and the community’s needs to reduce risks, harm, and recidivism.
The last two areas of focus were 5) Youth Outreach, which focuses on the only part of this program still left and funded by the Mayor’s office today- the Interrupters. It focuses on developing sustainable mentors who can nourish a change in attitudes, while also connecting high-risk youth, their families, and the community to programs and peacemaking strategies. The vision behind the Interrupters was/is to create a community where youth are shown the compassion and acceptance that they deserve by empowering, humanizing, and filling the void previously met by gang membership.
The last pillar was 6) the Employment & Economic Opportunities component. This area focuses on working with the local business community and other key players to create employment opportunities, as well as job training or educational opportunities for our youth and their families. This area focuses on the development of a community where positive opportunities exist, such as academic, economic, and social opportunities, rather than having individuals resort to street crime and violent activities. All these areas in the MCH were intentionally addressed because, as we walked the streets, we would hear all the time, as I do now, that the reason people carry a gun, especially the youth, is because they want to feel protected and ready should something “pop off” or happen. They want to show that they have power and can defend themselves and their loved ones. So, until we truly change the need for a gun, people are going to carry them. You can even buy a gun at a pawn shop with proper I.D. or get one gifted to you from someone upgrading. We need gun reform in Ohio to cut back on such easy access!
We, as a community and city, need to restart this dialogue that we have totally forgotten or only wanted to fund a part of. We need to re-evaluate why this is happening nationally and locally and ask our youth directly what makes them feel the need to 1) bring a gun to a family festival, and 2) resolve their issues by shooting the gun and through violence. Of course, safety is important, but we also need to address some of the real issues going on in Toledo that affect our youth and families.
If we want to see fewer shootings and people dying at the hands of a weapon, we need to fully fund our public schools and humanize the students. You can’t kill someone you see and feel as being fully human. We need to have healthcare for everyone. Maybe then, when corporations aren’t making so much money from us, we would have fewer chemicals killing us, enticing and damaging us, and earlier diagnoses for preventable diseases and mental health disorders. We also need to strengthen our Lucas County Children’s Services agencies and advocate for parents not to have to work so many jobs to make ends meet, and to be able to take their children out to one of our beautiful Metroparks, public libraries, and our festivals, rather than using these locations as childcare. We need programs that are so impactful that someone would never think of picking up a gun to resolve their problems or risk being locked up for the rest of their life.
Therefore, if those in elected positions are going to be making recommendations or offering assistance, why not seriously talk to those affected directly, and put MORE funding behind solving the problems? Better yet, why not work to understand why this is happening and put funds behind programs that are truly making a difference and needed to change this trajectory? Programs like the Parent Advocacy and Leadership (PAL) training program through the Lucas County Family and Children First Council, which, as Judge Andy Devine would say, starts with the parents. Or revive the Parent Centers, which were once a hub for parent resources and research located at the universities. Go back to the idea of fully funding a universal preschool, like Head Start and Early Head Start. Head Start started as a parent program that taught parents skills needed for employment, parenting skills, and how to sit on a nonprofit board. Preschool was a byproduct caused by the parents’ need for childcare as they were involved in a training or educational opportunity.
According to Colette Cordova, a Toledo resident, “we need to offer more summer jobs for our youth.” She suggests that “the City of Toledo and Lucas County, which oversee the Department of Labor Youth Funds, fund to the fullest and put money here to keep youth in positive activities and prevent them from getting involved in violent behavior and not find the need to carry guns.” As a society, we could also work on eliminating domestic violence because violence, we know, is a learned behavior.
And we need to eliminate the use, access, and production of firearms and ammunition. A country that glorifies killings and war is a country living a contradiction when it then wants to “punish to the fullest,” our youth who are surrounded by these images and messages every day. The issue is deep, it twists and turns, yet it starts with the messages we are giving children- what we are teaching them. Do we teach them to live in fear? That this world is unsafe. If it is, then why wouldn’t we expect them to carry a gun? We need a world where a gun isn’t needed for protection or to show self-worth or power.