Several faith groups and community organizations will come together Saturday to raise awareness about gun violence.

The Stand Up Against Gun Violence Community Fest will take place June 17 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Daniel Payne Community Plaza at 1500 Daniel Payne Drive.

The event will include a panel discussion on gun violence. There will also be family-friend entertainment and activities, including live music, food trucks, color run, kid’s zone, blood drive, and giveaways of school supplies and other goods.

Organizers include the Ninth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church along with the Daniel Payne Legacy Village Foundation, Northwest Conference Women’s Missionary Society, and Greater Birmingham AME Church Ministerial Alliance. The event is held in conjunction with Gun Violence Awareness Month.

“Gun Violence has touched nearly every major urban community in the United States over the last decade as well as many non-urban communities and taken the lives of too many promising young people for us as leaders to tolerate inaction,” said Bishop Harry L. Seawright, the Presiding Prelate of the Ninth Episcopal District of the AME Church in Alabama.

“Unfortunately, the people of Birmingham are all too familiar with gun violence,” said Thomasine Jackson, the community engagement chairman for the Stand Up Against Gun Violence event. “So far this year, our city has experienced more than 50 homicides, and history has shown that 90 percent of these killings involve guns. We must do more as a community to protect our young people from being caught up on either side of this violence.”

The event is designed to educate young people and parents about the issues surrounding gun violence, promote prevention and strengthen community partnerships.

“We want our community to understand that no place is immune from gun violence,” Seawright said. “It is a public health epidemic that is taking lives, terrorizing our communities and hurting our city. We want to support strategies that equip our citizens with conflict resolution skills, increase opportunities for reconciliation, and stop this cycle of violence.”