- “Charlotte’s Violence Interrupters’ Show Promise, Study Finds.” For WFAE, the local NPR affiliate in Charlotte, Lisa Worf reports on a new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s Urban Institute, which found that the city’s community violence interrupters program—known as “the Alternatives To Violence team”—“has shown some promise” in its first year of operation in that “violence dropped where the interrupters were deployed.” Here’s more from WFAE:
“In its first year, the team spent more than 1,500 hours canvassing neighborhoods …. The study found those neighborhoods saw lower rates of homicides committed with a gun compared to similar neighborhoods in Charlotte. Researchers cited the credibility of staff, their training and the connections they’re able to make as strengths.”
- “Louisville Expands ‘Violence Interrupters’ Program Aimed At Stopping Gun Violence In 5 Neighborhoods.” For local Louisville television news station, WDRB, Darby Beane reports on the city’s goal to “prevent violence before it happens” by:
“using nearly $7 million in funding to expand what it calls ‘violence interruption sites,’ tasked with empowering neighborhood and community members to stop gun violence at the ground level. The idea of the program, according to the [city’s] Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN), is to utilize ‘credible individuals’ with connections in Louisville’s highest-risk neighborhoods who will disrupt or prevent potentially violent situations.”
(The excellent full television segment, which runs just over two minutes, is also worth your time.)
- CVI Makes Its Way To The Celebrated Aspen Ideas Conference. Axios’s Emma Hurt, explained that “the message from advocates and experts in conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado” is that “after hitting a wall in Congress, gun control advocates are increasingly saying they’ll need to change the country’s culture before they can change its laws.” Changing culture to reduce violence without changing the law is a key feature of gun violence reduction programs such as community violence intervention, which is why “‘community violence intervention programs are showing promise as a way to make change,’ Jennifer Carlson, a sociologist at the University of Arizona studying the politics of guns in American life told the crowd.”