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

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

    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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  • Philly mothers of gun violence victims work to solve their children's murders

    Philadelphia police fail to solve most of the city's growing number of homicides, in part because of the no-snitching street code, a byproduct of the community's lack of trust in police. But the streets do sometimes talk when the mothers of murder victims do their own detective work. A number of cases were solved because mothers turned their grief into a resolve to hunt down evidence that they turned over to the police. Their work grows out of the many support groups they have formed to help each other, and from a YouTube channel that helps them draw attention to unsolved murders.

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  • Philly Under Fire Episode 6: The Golden Hour

    In Philadelphia, public agencies and funding serve homicide victims' families. But grassroots groups target the enormous gaps in services for the survivors of gun violence, people whose unaddressed needs – medical, financial, and especially emotional – can fuel cycles of retaliatory violence. Because trauma and anger increase the risks for future violence, groups like The ECO Foundation and Northwest Victim Services provide both immediate responses, starting bedside in hospitals, all the way to long-term care and counseling, plus preventive counseling and services to make for healthier communities.

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  • Philly Under Fire Episode 4: A Fresh 24

    Philadelphia's PowerCorpsPHL and a larger program it resembles, Chicago's CRED, spring from one reality: Young men prone to gun violence will readily leave street violence and the underground economy if offered the opportunity for a legitimate job. In Philly, the strategy worked even when the jobs barely pay minimum wage. When pay jumped $3 per hour, the rate at which program participants got arrested dropped from 8% to 3% immediately, versus the city average recidivism rate of about 50%. The programs also provide GED classes, trauma counseling, and other services meant to change lives permanently.

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  • "Get In Front of the Beef"

    Philadelphia's Cure Violence program uses violence interrupters whose street credibility can mediate disputes before they turn deadly. This program and a related group violence intervention program, focused deterrence, have been successful in certain neighborhoods. But the city's support has been inconsistent as competing priorities or lack of focus undercut the programs' effectiveness. Oakland's Ceasefire program provides an example of a long-term success in a marriage of law enforcement, community-led interventions, and data showing whom to target and what is working.

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