For Public Source, Venuri Siriwardane, reports on Allegheny County’s $50 million investment in “13 local [community violence intervention programs] … to carry out [the county’s] plan to treat violence like an infectious disease… to reduce violence in the county. These trained teams “respond to every shooting, hurry to hospitals, work with at-risk youth and otherwise try to curb violence” in the county, and the new funding injection has also allowed the programs to apply novel approaches to their work, as Siriwardane reports:
“When a victim of gun violence is brought to [the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center], a nurse in the trauma center might rush to their station and pick up a business card from Richard Garland…. scan the QR code on the card, which pulls up a form they can fill out and send to Garland’s team at Reimagine Reentry… The form provides crucial information about the victim, including their name, age, where they were shot and whether they’ve consented to receiving services [from Reimagine Reentry]… within 24 hours, a violence prevention coach from Reimagine will visit their bedside and offer services such as therapy, job training and housing assistance to intercept victims before they retaliate—a practice that could result in fewer gun-related homicides and help stop the cycle of violence in Allegheny County communities…
[Before the new funding] It would take [Garland’s team] up to three days to reach a victim’s bedside… [but the] infusion of cash from the county [allowed] Garland to pay for the QR code system and hire three staffers for Reimagine’s hospital-based violence intervention program… Now his team is able to reach victims across four hospitals in less than a day.”
Another program, Focus on Renewal, is using the funds to “place participants in jobs at local businesses” to further stabilize victims of violence. Cynthia Haines, who leads the program, told the magazine that the “funding from the county—about $1.3 million over the last year” allowed her to “hire a job coach and supervisor to help participants succeed [in their new jobs],” offer “cognitive behavioral therapy, guest speaker sessions to ‘open their minds up’ to different career possibilities” and she’s gotten commitment from “at least 20 local businesses to hiring [program participants].”