Jabee Williams knows that preventing violence begins long before a crisis reaches a courtroom or jail cell. It begins with trust—with people who know the neighborhood, understand the pressure families carry, and can reach someone before conflict becomes irreversible.
Williams, an Oklahoma City artist, activist, and organizer, founded LIVE FREE Oklahoma in 2023 to build that community-rooted response. Raised on Oklahoma City’s Eastside, he experienced the impact of violence personally after losing his brother to gun violence as a teenager. His leadership grows from lived experience and years of using culture, mentorship, and public advocacy to create opportunity.
Trusted PeaceMakers Interrupt Harm
LIVE FREE Oklahoma trains and deploys PeaceMakers: trusted community members with lived experience who can mediate conflict, interrupt retaliation, support survivors, and connect residents to resources. Their credibility is essential to the strategy. It is why people may answer a call, open a door, or accept help when institutional trust is low.
The work extends beyond conflict mediation. LIVE FREE Oklahoma connects people and families with mental-health care, housing assistance, employment pathways, and other support. These services address the conditions that can leave people vulnerable to harm and make recovery harder after violence.
Oklahoma recorded 814 firearm-related deaths in 2023, according to data cited by LIVE FREE Oklahoma. Gun deaths had increased 27 percent since 2014, and young Black men ages 15 to 34 faced a sharply disproportionate share of gun homicides. Those numbers describe an urgent challenge, but they do not dictate the future.
In Northeast Oklahoma City, the organization is demonstrating another path. Its model prioritizes prevention over punishment, healing over isolation, and sustained relationships over short-term reactions. The Peace Needs Conference and Peace Expo bring residents, service providers, leaders, and organizers together to identify needs and build solutions.
Culture, Credibility, and Lasting Power
Williams’s cultural leadership strengthens that organizing. As a nationally recognized hip-hop artist, he understands how stories shape what people believe is possible. His music and public work carry the same message: communities experiencing pain also hold creativity, resilience, and the capacity to transform their conditions.
LIVE FREE Oklahoma is part of a national network with experience in community violence intervention, faith-rooted organizing, policy advocacy, and leadership development. The chapter draws on a wider movement while remaining accountable to Oklahoma communities.
The result is a local organization with national reach and neighborhood credibility. It can support a family in crisis, train a new PeaceMaker, convene partners, and advocate for the long-term investment prevention requires.
Jabee Williams and LIVE FREE Oklahoma are showing that community credibility is essential public-safety infrastructure. When trusted leaders have resources to act, they can interrupt harm, open pathways to healing, and help a community build lasting power.
