Members of Rise Above Bermuda (RAB), one of the Island's most vocal anti-violence groups, will hold a meeting at Victor Scott School tomorrow to discuss future plans.

RAB spokesman and Police Media Relations Manager, Dwayne Caines said that Thursday evening's meeting will have two main goals on the agenda.

Members of the public will be invited to discuss ways to expand the work of community action teams, local schools and neighbourhoods in areas directly affected by gang violence. The meeting will also cover ways to propose policy and legislative solutions that can be implemented to immediately address the escalating violence.

"With these two goals we can continue the work in our community action teams but simultaneously create another set of actions that can influence the political and governmental process," said Mr. Caines.

At a meeting held on Sunday at Victor Scott School, RAB released a public statement on the recent violence and discussed the next short-term steps for the group.

According to Mr. Caines, several important questions were raised during an open discussion at the meeting. He said the questions "What kinds of action should Rise Above Bermuda be mobilising people to engage in? Are any shifts required?" led the discussions.

"We discussed the mobile command centre of the police service and why it is left in areas unmanned," he said in an e-mail. "That discussion led to the broader realisation that there is a very real gap in two areas. The first area relates to the ability and willingness of the community in providing clear details and direct evidence regarding gun and gang crimes. The second lies in an overall inefficiency of judicial, political and Police institutions and policies to provide the safety 'net' needed for the community to 'step' forward."

Mr. Caines said that the group will capitalise on RAB's non-partisan status to propose, target, and influence the policy, legislative and policing decisions made on behalf of communities.

According to Mr. Caines several suggestions to stem the gun violence were made at Sunday's meeting. He said ideas such as the banning of tinted visors on bike helmets, manning of the Police command centres, public press identity protection of witnesses and surveys of community policing needs will be discussed at future RAB meetings.

Said Mr. Caines: "In summary these suggestions involve an agenda shift. It was clearly noted however that the agenda would be in addition to RAB's very basic mandate: To address the needs of the community through direct action."

Rise Above Bermuda is urging the public to attend tomorrow evening's meeting from 6-8 p.m. at Victor Scott School.