Safe Streets will host several Superstars at its annual breakfast celebration Wednesday. This year’s winners are:

Outstanding block leader or strategic partner: Glenn Grigsby

Grigsby is a 15-year tenant of the Winthrop Apartments, 776 Commerce St. In recent years, he’s worked to clean up the low-income building, which has a reputation for drug activity, vandalism and other nefarious activity.

As leader of the Olympus-Winthrop Guardians, he holds monthly meetings with other residents and clean up parties in the neighborhood.

“Grigsby is drawing on his own experiences to make life at the Winthrop better,” a Safe Streets press release states. “All the while, he hopes to alter perceptions of a building that has the potential to be a safe, crime-free haven for himself and his neighbors.”

Outstanding block group or coalition: Park Avenue Neighborhood

This group of South End residents has been working to take back their neighborhood and keep gangs and other criminals out.

More than 120 residents are involved in the group. They’ve worked with the police department to implement a speed watch program and have established neighborhood patrols to find and report suspicious activity.

“Crime prevention funding was secured to light up problem areas where drug dealing and prostitution occur, and numerous drug houses and gathering places for gangs have been shuttered,” the press release states.

Recently, the group has been combating gang graffiti. Suspected gang members tagged dozens of properties in two waves of vandalism. After each wave, group members painted over the graffiti.

“Group members have decided that they, and not criminals, will determine the direction that their neighborhood takes,” the press release states. “The Park Avenue Neighborhood is putting a stop to gang and drug activity before their families and neighborhood suffer the damage of crime left unchecked.”

Outstanding youth: Julia Lay

Lay is a senior at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. She is the school’s Youth Leading Change chapter president and has helped position the program to be one of the foremost organizers of teen-driven prevention, Safe Streets reports.

A past Safe Streets Superstar encouraged Lay to join the Youth Leading Change program. Now, she’s become a leader in the program, making speeches on prevention to students, treatment professionals and lawmakers. She also facilitated a discussion at a citywide forum on gang activity.

“Lay personifies the quiet leader – someone who sees that needs to be done, and uses her strengths to guide others in solving the problem,” the press release states. “With persistence and hard work, she is achieving positive change in her school, and will ultimately impact her community as a confident and purposeful adult leader.”

Director’s Award: Tacoma police community liaison officer Don Williams

Williams works in Sector 4, comprised of the city’s East Side and part of the South End. He works closely with neighborhood groups and business districts to address crime and blight issues. He’s helped groups create strategies to address drug activity, vandalism, gangs, prostitution and blight.

Williams attends numerous meetings and keeps in constant contact with group leaders.

“Whether it is accompanying residents on walkabouts to identify hot spots for crime, making connections at neighborhood safety fairs, or simply attending meetings to hear residents share their grievances, Williams pushes himself to meet residents’ needs,” the press release states. “Safe Streets block group members know that he will continue to work alongside them as their champion, supporting and defending them in their fight to create safe neighborhoods.”