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Akron is celebrating its bicentennial this year, filled with pomp and circumstance surrounding everything from the rubber industry to the abolitionist movement.

Akron Mayor Shammas Malik announced a hospital-linked violence interruption pilot program and an Akron Police Department comprehensive community engagement plan in his 2025 State of the City address.

The partnership will give Merriman Valley residents and business owners in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls a say on development in line with the Merriman Valley Schumacher Area Master Plan, officials said.

As part of Akron's yearlong bicentennial celebration, the city has planned various events through the summer, including the Heart of Akron Festival on July 3 and 4.

Signs of spring are already popping up at Akron Cooperative Farms, a community garden that mainly serves Bhutanese immigrants.

The move to hire the university's Department of Criminal Justice Studies comes after Akron City Council rejected Mayor Shammas Malik's plan to hire a national consulting firm last month, citing the $640,000 price tag.

The nonprofit Early Childhood Resource Center is dispersing $199,990 in grant money from The National Fund for Workforce Solutions and $40,000 from the GAR Foundation, according to Akron officials. The city is also providing mini-grants to childcare centers, according to city officials.

The city held a town hall Tuesday night to hear residents thoughts on crowd control as the city develops a new policy per a settlement last year.

The Eddie Eagle cartoon, produced by the National Rifle Association in the late 1980s, is being used in Cleveland, Akron and cities across the country to try to teach children gun safety. But research shows it's ineffective.

Homeless outreach groups across the country are conducting the annual Point-In-Time Count. Although official numbers won't be in for months, advocates expect the number of people experiencing homelessness to continue to increase.