Local and state leaders meet with the people of Uniontown to discuss what residents believe will make the community safer and a better place for youth to grow up.The meeting Tuesday night was held just blocks from where a man was fatally shot two weeks ago, allegedly by a 14-year-old gunman.That act of violence is one reason the pastor of Fresh Fire Church called for a community “listening session.”“An increase in the violence, crime, drug abuse, and just a deterioration of our city,” Pastor Adam Lawson said.Lawson listed some of the issues he sees Uniontown, and specifically the East End neighborhood facing, before handing over the mic to the public to address city leadership.“We want to get the community together to see what we can do to make our community better,” Uniontown Mayor Bill Gerke said.Uniontown city leaders, Fayette County officials, representatives of state lawmakers, and political candidates were in the audience listening.“We need transition programs that we can turn people’s lives around, giving them the support that they need to get positively back into the community,” a Uniontown resident said.The woman was speaking specifically about people getting out of prison and choosing to restart their lives in Uniontown.A former inmate said that’s what he is doing now, but he explained that he is now faced with the reality that the youth are too often picking up guns.“Now it’s happening amongst the younger generations. Now it’s our babies killing each other. It’s serious,” the man said.He called on leaders to invest in the youth by providing job opportunities they can do.“Let them take pride in their community. If you take pride in it, if you feel you are a part of it, you won’t have a tendency to destroy it,” the man said.Some simply asked for funding to build a playground, to give children a safe place to be kids.Others demanded more action on tearing down or repurposing blighted property.“You have all these buildings that are just wasting away. I see schools for these children. I see trade schools for these children, free education, copy and paste it, because it needs to be up here. Everything is happening downtown. We need businesses up here,” a woman said.Lawson said a ‘community coalition’ is forming. Its purpose is to identify areas of concern in the community and develop strategies to overcome those concerns, by working with faith-based organizations, and local and state government. Lawson said already over 25 different organizations and churches have registered for the coalition.