Kalamazoo's public health approach to gun violence opens doors to creative solutions, says expert

Community violence intervention programs like the interrupter model and groups like Cure Violence are deploying knowledgeable people — specifically those with experience in crime and the legal system — into neighborhoods to help steer people away from gangs and violent crime. The purpose with groups like Cure Violence is to treat violent crime — like gun violence — like an epidemic, deploying those with credibility into vulnerable populations. When Cure Violence was first launched in Chicago in 2000, shootings declined by 68%.

Survivors of gangs and gun violence, April Roby-Bell, Terra Jenkins, and Larita Rice-Barnes work to support people in the community grieving loved ones lost due to gun violence. They have formed nonprofits like the Metro East Organizing Coalition, and churches like the Restoration Outreach Center and host rallies and help organize funerals for families in need.

Roca Baltimore uses outreach and cognitive behavioral therapy to disrupt gun violence among the city's highest-risk young men. Since partnering with Baltimore's Group Violence Reduction Strategy in 2022, 93% of Roca participants have not been revictimized, and 98% have not been rearrested for violent offenses. The organization's comprehensive 18-24 month intervention model combines persistent street outreach, evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy, paid transitional employment, and connections to trade programs in an effort to reduce violence in the city.

East Harlem’s Cornerstone youth programming at community centers brings together community nonprofits, police, residents, and other local agencies to address gun violence in the public housing. Through community outreach, more strategic gang enforcement policies, and other programming, the approach has led to a 30% reduction in shootings in the area.

Birmingham’s Offender Alumni Association is a group of violence intervention specialists that check in with gun violence patients at the hospital to offer mental health services and case management to prevent reinjury and retaliatory violence. Since launching, the group has taken on 144 clients, providing wrap-around services to victims and their families, including mentoring, emergency relocation and funds for medicine, groceries, rent and utilities.

Several cities across the U.S. are trying new methods to reduce violent crime. Some of these, like the “hotspot policing” effort in San Antonio that increases police visibility in areas that are statistically prone to violent crime, are working. The first part of San Antonio’s three-phase plan saw a 37% decrease in violent crime compared to the previous year.

Trauma recovery centers are spreading across the United States as a way to help people involved in violent crime escape it and prevent future crimes. These centers provide personalized, wraparound services to anyone in need, regardless of whether the crime they survived was reported or whether they’ve participated in violence in the past.

Roca uses cognitive behavior therapy with young people at risk of committing violence in order to interrupt the cycle of violence and change how the individuals react to different situations. Roca teaches people skills to slow down, think differently about a situation, and respond in a way that deescalates violence. The organization was successful in Massachusetts, with 84% of those staying in the program for two to four years not having any additional arrests and 98% having no new incarcerations, and has since expanded to Baltimore.

The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.

Volunteer violence interrupters with Youth Alive — a nonprofit based in Oakland, California — are breaking cycles of violence by providing immediate support to victims and their families after a crime. They receive tips from the community, direct people to resources, mediate conflicts, and even help survivors relocate.