Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Fighting Gun Violence in Chicago, With Trees, Rakes, and Cleanup Crews

    Chicago is trying something new when it comes to violence prevention: beautifying public spaces that have been known to be places of violence. The city has launched an official pilot program called Grounds for Peace, which partners with READI Chicago to provide jobs within the initiative to at-risk men. While the effort to beautify has shown a decrease in gun violence in other cities, Chicago residents approach this with caution, as the neighborhoods its working within are often neglected.

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  • What Gun Violence Prevention Looks Like When It Focuses on the Communities Hurt the Most

    Across the United States, gun violence prevention initiatives are finally turning their attention to the urban communities hit hardest and supporting community-driven approaches. In the past, financial support has gone to linear, legislative approaches to gun control that often favor white communities, but the tides are turning. Funding has shifted to focus on initiatives that provide trauma recovery centers, hospital-based centers, and programs that provide communities hit the hardest with mentorship, job training, and therapy – all initiatives that have proven to help break the cycle of gun violence.

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  • What if Fort Worth hired ex-convicts to fight violent crime? It's working elsewhere

    Within a year of founding its Office of Neighborhood Safety to prevent gun violence, Richmond saw its most violent neighborhood drop from 27 murders to three. The program pairs former gang members and formerly incarcerated men with people deemed at risk of shooting others or getting shot. The mentors are paid a salary by the city, and the program "fellows" get paid a stipend if they stay out of trouble and respond well to the program's life-skills counseling. The program expanded citywide and to other cities, based on its record of keeping fellows alive and shootings in decline.

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  • A Program Gives Jobs To Those Most At Risk For Violence; Can Chicago Afford It?

    An anti-violence program in Chicago called the Rapid Employment and Development Initiative, or READI, identifies and engages with those most vulnerable to partake or be a victim of gun violence, and provides them with the support they need to avoid it. Born out of a collaboration between the University of Chicago’s Crime and Education Lab and various philanthropical efforts, READI gives participants job counseling and therapy to cope with current and past traumas. While it’s seen demonstrable success, it hopes to expand with the financial support from the city.

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  • California: Epicenter of Mass Incarceration Reform

    Following a Supreme Court mandate requiring California to address prison overcrowding, the state has taken numerous initiatives to reduce sentences, relocate inmates, set higher accountability measures for law enforcement, and allocate more funding for re-entry programs. While these measures have been implemented across the state, the city of Stockton has been a leader after electing the nation’s youngest – and Stockton’s first African American – mayor, Michael Tubbs. Since then, the city has adopted reforms such as universal basic income and mentorship programs and has witnessed a 40% drop in homicides.

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  • The Indigenous Guardians of the Amazon Rainforest

    The Guardians of the Forest is an indigenous volunteer group who patrols protected areas of the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by illegal logging. Volunteers seek out and destroy logging camps, chase loggers off the land, educate locals about the harms, and advocate for government resources. The loggers use violence, but the Guardians use non-violent techniques to protect uncontacted tribes, stop deforestation and species extinction, and protect indigenous culture. Despite federal obstacles, some local officials express a desire to integrate the work of the Guardians into official conservation efforts.

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  • From Gunshots to Galleries: Wraparound Violence Prevention Program Helps Victims Restart their Lives

    The Wraparound Project at Zuckerman San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center turns gunshot victims' hospital stays into "a teachable moment," by providing them with services aimed at helping them avoid a repeat injury. Getting shot once is a key risk factor for a second injury, particularly for gun violence's most common victims, young Black men. Wraparound is one of the nation's oldest hospital-based violence intervention programs. It has helped about 850 clients, mostly with mental health counseling, housing, and jobs. The program is associated with a decreased reinjury rate in San Francisco.

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  • Interruption: A fix for Flint's gun violence

    Across the country, mental health professionals, city officials, and community leaders have been developing grassroots responses to curb gun violence. From mediation to education, a driving factor behind these efforts has been prevention. As Flint, Michigan witnesses a striking increase in violent crime, they look to these responses as possible interventions for their own community.

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  • A night with Philly's ‘violence interrupters' teams as they offer services to curb bloodshed

    In Philadelphia, where the homicide rate recently hit a ten-year high, teams known as violence interrupters are stepping in to employ crisis intervention in high-risk areas. By using several different tactics including social media monitoring and embedding in neighborhoods, the program partners with communities rather than intruding which fosters better trust and leads to more positive results.

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  • Hospitals Are Trying To Do What Politicians Haven't: Stop Gun Violence

    The Capital Region Violence Intervention Program uses the "golden moment" when gunshot victims are receptive to guidance, in the initial hours of their hospitalization, to steer them away from retaliatory violence and enroll them in mental health and job counseling. About 30 hospital-based violence intervention programs around the country provide such services, which have been shown to reduce violent injury and death, though such studies have been small in scale. The capital region program's first 100 patients avoided further harm, a far better than average result.

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