The City of Mobile Department of Public Safety is inviting residents to Figures Park on Thursday, July 30, for a community event pairing youth engagement with a message about preventing gun violence, according to city officials.
The event, called Figures Park Community Day, is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the park, located at 658 Donald Street C in Mobile. Organizers describe the gathering as centered on “community engagement, youth empowerment, and gun violence prevention,” bringing together neighborhood families, city officials and first responders for an evening focused on connection rather than confrontation.
A centerpiece of the evening will be a friendly basketball competition between Figures Park Youth and members of the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, an informal matchup designed to build rapport between young people in the neighborhood and the city employees who serve them. Pairing recreational activities with first responders has become a increasingly common approach for cities looking to build trust between public safety agencies and the communities they serve, particularly among younger residents.
Davon Williams, a survivor of gun violence who now advocates against it, will be a featured speaker at the event. Survivor-led advocacy has become a prominent component of community violence intervention efforts in cities across the country, with organizers often citing firsthand testimony as a way to reach young people more effectively than statistics or lectures alone.
Community Day events like Thursday’s gathering are typically organized as part of broader public safety strategies that pair traditional law enforcement with community-based prevention programs. Cities including Mobile have increasingly leaned on neighborhood-level events, recreational programming and mentorship opportunities as part of a layered approach to reducing violence, particularly among youth.
Figures Park has served as a recreational hub for the surrounding Mobile neighborhood, and Thursday’s event marks the latest effort by city departments to use the space for community-building programming beyond typical park use. Residents interested in attending Community Day are encouraged to arrive at the park in the early evening for the 5:30 p.m. start.