The Washington Post
19 August 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Violence interrupters conducted a dozen meetings over Zoom to negotiate a truce between two warring groups in a neighborhood that went from 11 shootings in 5 months to none for at least 99 days following the truce. To mediate the personal disputes that had led to violent clashes, those leading the negotiations, from the D.C. attorney general's Cure the Streets program, used their knowledge of the community and their credibility as streetwise actors standing apart from police to strike an agreement. Truces like this often don't last long, but this one helped amid big increases in violence citywide.
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/08/study-low-injury-rate-shows-gun-control-laws-work
Chad Blair
Honolulu Civil Beat
19 August 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
Hawaii is one of the states with strongest gun laws and lowest gun death rates. A study found that states with stricter gun control laws, ammo regulation, background checks, and reporting of lost firearms had the lowest injury rates.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/02/world/can-legislation-prevent-mass-shootings
Paul Armstrong
Euan McKirdy
CNN
2 October 2015
Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes
The U.S. continues to experience mass shootings, and many Americans deny that tightening gun laws will help. However, countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Norway have reduced gun violence through stricter regulations.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/colombias-data-driven-fight-against-crime
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
20 November 2014
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Colombia has attempted to decrease murder and homicide rates by setting up curfews for teenagers, forcing bars to close earlier in the evening, and creating gun laws to prevent the carrying of weapons. As a result of this epidemiological, data-driven approach, along with other governmental factors, the homicide rate has decreased significantly in most of the cities in which it was implemented.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/for-teens-in-crisis-this-text-could-be-a-lifesaver
David Bornstein
The New York Times
4 September 2015
Text / 1500-3000 Words
With pressures of depression, anxiety, and suicide on the rise, teenagers in the United States are challenged to find the comfortable outlet and accessibility for emotional support. The Crisis Text Line offers a counseling service through mobile texting, which reduces the shame that can occur when approaching an in-person counselor, and expands access to professional mental health counseling nationwide.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/houstons-solution-to-mental-health-system-problems-offers-a-case-study-for-milwaukee-b9928490z1-210715811.html
Meg Kissinger
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
8 June 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In Houston, TX, many individuals with mental illnesses cycled in and out of emergency care while arrested or incarcerated. Houston’s police department has decreased the number of incarcerated who have mental illness by opening a division to mental health called the Chronic Consumer Stabilization Unit. Now Milwaukee seeks to replicate Houston’s results.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/chronic-crisis-how-can-milwaukee-countys-broken-mental-health-system-be-fixed-229974841.html
Meg Kissinger
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
5 November 2013
Text / Under 800 Words
Milwaukee County’s mental health system put more resources in expensive emergency care rather than invest in programs that offer continual care. As a result, Milwaukee County identifies nine solutions from other cities that have had success in repairing mental health systems. Solutions include the ending of reliance on emergency care, expand community support programs, change laws, and supportive housing.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/12/a-confused-war-reducing-gun-violence-part-1.html
Mariel Carr
Rachel Waldholz
Al Jazeera
12 March 2015
Video / 5-15 Minutes
Richmond, California ranked among the highest homicide rates in the country. The city created the Office of Neighborhood Safety to engage the community in the effort to curb gun violence and prevent homicides. ONS works directly with the young people who are at risk and have succeeded in reducing the homicide rate.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/03/09/50245/police-and-the-mentally-ill-lapd-unit-praised-as-m
Stephanie O'Neill
Southern California Public Radio (KPCC)
9 March 2015
Radio / 5-15 Minutes
LAPD's special team, the Mental Evaluation Unit, is teaming up police officers with mental health clinicians to better approach and address individuals suffering from a mental health crisis. Rather than sending them to jail - where resources are limited and a vicious cycle often results - the teams help ensure patients get the medical care they need, preventing brushes with the law and county millions of dollars and freed up thousands of hours of patrol time. Their model is being replicated nation-wide.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/interrupting-violence-brooklyn
Trymaine Lee
Elissa Curtis
MSNBC
8 April 2014
Text / Under 800 Words
In Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, an organization called Save Our Streets Crown Heights (S.O.S.) is taking steps to disrupt violence. The organization is modeled after Chicago's violence interrupters, which employ people from the neighborhood to connect with those most at-risk and disrupt conflicts and retalitory violence.
http://news.yahoo.com/battling-america-s-other-ptsd-crisis-194336514.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma
Tina Rosenberg
Yahoo! News
6 March 2015
Text / Over 3000 Words
A program in Philadelphia is pioneering new ways to treat the urban wounded. By seeing it as PTSD, and not pointing fingers, the city is using mental health tools to decrease violence and heal communities.
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