Austin and Central Texas leaders have rolled out the first phase of the One Safe Central Texas Roadmap for Peace, pitching it as a regional game plan to prevent and heal from community violence. The blueprint pulls community groups, nonprofits, and local officials into a public health style strategy that leans on prevention, trauma-informed services, and economic opportunity. Organizers say the work is designed to build on what they describe as a recent dip in local homicides.
Eddie Franz, co-founder of ATX Peace, said the roadmap marks a deliberate move away from trying to “incarcerate the problem away” and toward treating violence as a public health issue rooted in trauma. He said the coalition is “starting to strategically plan how to continue the decrease in homicides,” pointing to what organizers describe as lower totals reported for 2025 after higher counts in the previous two years, according to CBS Austin.
What the roadmap targets
Phase one centers on prevention, healing, and opportunity, priorities that backers say can cut violence by going after root causes such as trauma, poverty, and lack of services. Judge Denise Hernandez, presiding judge of County Court at Law #6, said, “It takes all of us, right?” and stressed that bringing in people with lived experience helps shape intersectional solutions that are grounded in reality, not theory. Hernandez cautioned that the loss of a grant has slowed some on-the-ground work, yet said leaders are determined to keep the roadmap moving forward, as reported by CBS Austin.
How leaders plan to track progress
Organizers say they will work with Austin Public Health to keep tabs on crime data and see whether the roadmap’s interventions actually move the needle on violence over time. The city posts public crime statistics and monthly reports through the Austin Police Department, which will be one of the tools used to follow trends. For more on how local crime data is reported, see the Austin Police Department.
The roadmap’s authors describe this first phase as the start of a multi-year push to build out services and systems for system-impacted youth and communities across the region. Community groups and city officials say they will be watching homicide and related data in the coming months as they shift from planning meetings to delivering services on the ground.
