Lansing, Michigan, Reduced Shootings. Now Community Groups Are Trying to Keep the Peace.

The Y+ Beauty Pageant empowers young people living with HIV to embrace their diagnosis and advocate for others despite the stigma associated with the condition. Participants in the beauty pageant then go out into their communities to be changemakers and lead education and awareness campaigns. Since 2014, the pageant has reached over 50,000 people through its various campaigns.

The Network of Water Rights Initiative (NWRI) works with local organizations to improve access to safe water through education and awareness campaigns aimed at enlightening people about the health risks of contaminated water. NWRI has led water clean-up efforts, helped locals establish security measures to prevent people from dumping waste in water and even helped get a water bill signed into law that would improve water supply and sanitation services across the state.

Members of a water-insecure community mobilized to contribute a portion of their monthly stipends to repair and maintain the singular borehole providing water to the village. The community members — primarily women — also installed water taps throughout the community in locations like schools and mosques to ensure easy access to clean, safe drinking water.

Kalamazoo’s Group Violence Intervention program works to interject itself into the cycle of gun violence to stop it. Members of the group, and those similar to it, often have lived experience with gun violence and this work can be emotionally draining and traumatic. To combat this heaviness, some group members have stepped up to teach healthy coping mechanisms and encourage participants to disregard stigma and seek mental health care when necessary.

The Victim of Violence Program uses hospital social workers to connect with youth in the hospital for cases of interpersonal violence by helping them cope with trauma, and any other psychosocial concerns that may arise as a result within the year that youth and their families are required to participate in the program. An individualized, holistic treatment plan is developed for each patient, whether that be helping them graduate high school, learn how to communicate better with family or manage the symptoms of their trauma. In 2021, the program had 11 patients and a 100% completion rate.

Nonviolence Chicago uses street-outreach workers to mediate disputes and connect residents of violence-prone neighborhoods to needed services. Its work, amounting to tens of thousands of contacts per year with people involved in violence, has contributed to efforts that reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings in the Austin neighborhood by nearly half from 2016 to 2019. By replacing the police with former gang members and others with street credibility, and working with both victims and shooters, Nonviolence Chicago wins the trust of residents.

California’s Bay Area has seen a 30% decrease in gun homicides, despite increasing economic inequality. The region has had many interventions to reach this decline, but the key to all of them is their community-driven nature. From collaborations between law enforcement and social services, to community mentorship programs, to investing in gun violence as a public health issue, each initiative is founded on neighborhood and individual empowerment instead of policing and incarceration.

Students in Chicago coping with gun deaths and violence among their families and friends find empowerment and support through teachers and administrators who encourage them to become active in national protests against gun violence. The students feel supported and also connected to a larger community and movement that helps them feel less isolated. It also sparked interest in getting active on other issues.

After going to prison themselves, John Knight of Jackson and Shanduke McPhatter of Brooklyn are living straight and determined to make changes. They work as "violence interrupters" in their neighborhoods, using an approach called "Cure Violence," developed by Dr. Gary Slutkin. They mentor other young, at-risk men and encourage them towards graduating high school, community service, staying away from drugs, and pursuing honest work.

When lawmakers try to tackle gun violence, they often turn to measures like adding police officers or cracking down on illegal guns. But what happens when they treat violent crime as a public-health problem? Counselors invite patients to join the Violence Intervention Program, offering a host of services intended to break the cycle of violence.