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King County's rise in gun violence doesn't have an easy explanation

Nate Sanford

September 01, 2021 |

Crosscut |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Community Passageways does the kind of violence intervention work that the city of Seattle plans to invest in to expand its reach. Peer mentors reach out to young men at highest risk of suffering or committing violence. They mediate disputes and counsel the men on finding work and staying clear of criminal trouble. While this group has made progress in connecting people to jobs and other help, its effects on Seattle's recent surge in gun violence are unknown. Similar programs elsewhere, focusing on the same sets of conditions that cause much community violence, have been shown to be effective.

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How Otukpo Became An Oasis Of Peace In Benue After Fulani Militia's Attack

Chikezie Omeje Arinze Chijioke

August 19, 2021 |

Sahara Reporters |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Otukpo, Benue

Violent clashes between farmers and cattle herders that have claimed thousands of lives have largely ceased in Otukpo, thanks to a peacekeeping process that resolves disputes and is based on a shared recognition of two groups' humanity. The process imposed rules in an otherwise unruly system in which Fulani herders' open-grazing cattle destroyed crops, leading to violence. Negotiated leases and dispute-resolution mechanisms, governed through monthly meetings, have resulted in only one death since 2018, while surrounding areas continue to suffer many casualties.

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In Religiously-divided Kaduna, Muslim And Christian Women Lead Peace Talks

Innocent Eteng

August 17, 2021 |

Prime Progress |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Kaduna

The Interfaith Mediation Center trained two groups of 30 Muslim and Christian women in two areas of Kaduna as a pilot project putting women at the center of the work needed to understand and prevent religion-motivated violence. Dozens have died in these areas. Even though women often are the victims, they usually are excluded from peacemaking work. The women committed to live peacefully and then went door to door to meet others in the community for bridge-building dialogues, which some said was a unique and transformative experience for them.

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When Shootings Erupt, These Moms, Pastors And Neighbors Step In To Defuse Tension

Jasmine Garsd

August 14, 2021 |

NPR |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Rock Safe Streets in the Red Fern Public Houses of Far Rockaway, Queens, ramped up its violence interrupter work starting in 2020 as gun violence increased. Red Fern then went nearly a year without a single shooting. Violence interrupters work apart from the police, banking on the community's trust in formerly incarcerated counselors to mediate disputes before they turn violent. Success is measured in daily increments, and many other factors influence community violence. But the residents do what they can to influence those driving the violence.

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Minneapolis Is Testing a New Approach to Public Safety

Joe Barrett Deena Winter

August 13, 2021 |

Wall Street Journal |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Agape Movement was born during the tensest moments of the 2020 social-justice uprising in Minneapolis, using unarmed community members to provide safety to protesters. Since then the city awarded it multiple contracts to field dozens of "credible messengers" to mediate disputes and serve as a buffer between the police and the community. Agape workers helped maintain a peaceful transition as a protest space called George Floyd Square was reopened to traffic in June 2021. It serves as an early test of community-led policing alternatives in the city.

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Could this reentry program be the key to less gun violence in Philly?

Jo Piazza

August 05, 2021 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project started an intergenerational healing circle in 2020 that brought together young men with older men who served decades in prison, after being sentenced as youth. As a form of group therapy combined with life-skills coaching, going from old to young and vice versa, the group fostered a sense of personal growth and hope in participants – all aimed at lowering people's likelihood to commit violence. The results, as intangible as they may seem, inspired a repeat of the group in 2021, and the addition of a group serving younger and older women.

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How emergency workers are combating gun violence: 'We have to invest'

Shannon Lilly

July 14, 2021 |

WTVR-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Richmond, Virginia

Bridging the Gap is a violence prevention program at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center that emphasizes treating more than the physical wounds of gunshot victims. Starting in the hospital and continuing afterward, the program gives victims case managers and mentors to link them to services that will change their life's trajectory, including job opportunities. The aim is to interrupt the cycles in which the same people get injured repeatedly, sometimes leading to their deaths. Since the program started in 2007, people it has helped experience far fewer repeat injuries.

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Police response to mentally ill people is under scrutiny. Denver may offer way forward.

Vicky Collins

July 04, 2021 |

NBC News |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver

As the nation’s largest city to embrace an alternative approach to responding to 911 calls in non-violent personal crises, Denver finished the first year of its pilot program having never needed police backup when its medics and social workers handled problems on the streets. About a third of calls to STAR (Support Team Assisted Response) came from police who saw STAR as a better responder to certain calls. In about 40% of calls, people in mental health or substance use crises received the services they needed without involving arrests or conflicts with police.

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Get There Fast or Safe? A Crowdsourced Map Gives You the Option

Chandni Doulatramani

June 29, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Gurgaon

In 71 cities around the world, users of the My Safetipin mobile app can decide whether to visit a particular neighborhood or plan a travel route based on how safe others deem those places. While the 100,000 or so users, more than half in India, constitute too small a user base to make the mapping app truly universal, its crowdsourced data already have prompted the Delhi and Bogota governments to improve street lighting on streets deemed unsafe because they are not well lit. The app's primary goal is to make the streets safer for women.

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Food insecurity linked to gun violence. In St. Louis, Black farmers work on a solution

Hurubie Meko

June 27, 2021 |

The Kansas City Star |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

Black, urban farmers have formed a grassroots "ecosystem" to grow and distribute fresh, affordable produce in St. Louis neighborhoods where food insecurity and gun violence go hand in hand. Heru Urban Farming is a startup businesses and CSA growing vegetables in vacant lots that it then sells by subscription and gives away to families in need. Along with a new farmers market and a mobile produce vendor, the "food justice" activists and entrepreneurs are meeting a nutritional need where quality supermarkets don't exist and corner stores typically sell packaged, processed foods.

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