“Violence, Interrupted,” a new initiative in Pennsylvania, highlights community violence intervention programs and their role in reducing gun violence across the state.
YORK, Pa. —
A new project in Pennsylvania called “Violence, Interrupted” is highlighting the work of community violence intervention programs aimed at preventing gun violence and making neighborhoods safer.
“Gun homicides in Pennsylvania are at some of the lowest levels that we’ve seen ever, because of community violence intervention work,” said Adam Garber, the CEO of CeaseFirePA.
The initiative introduces programs like York City’s GVI, led by program director Tiff Lowe, who shared a story about two individuals from different sides of town, with a history of gun charges, willing to engage in dialogue through the “pen and pad” program.
“If that’s all the beef is, is it worth you guys killing each other? And is it worth you guys not coming together?” Lowe said. “So they both kind of thought about it like, wait, you’re right. It was like an eye-opening experience, just the fact that they even agreed to it. And the fact that they just took a moment to say, ‘It’s not worth it.'”
Lowe works on interventions like this daily and hopes the videos will inspire other communities to adopt similar programs.
“So now that it’s being highlighted, I think that more communities will now see it,” Lowe said. “And those that believed that they couldn’t do it, but needed assistance with getting a program such as GVI, pen and pad, whatever it is in their community to help save these young people.”
The project includes stories from communities such as Kensington, Philadelphia, and the Lehigh Valley, with plans to expand to Lancaster and Pittsburgh.
“It’s really about telling the story of this work in a way that sits with people, that isn’t abstract, that isn’t theoretical, but it is concrete and centered in the community and centered on an individual or group of individuals that are alive today because of people like Tiff,” Garber said.
Lowe emphasized the ultimate goal of her work.
“The ultimate goal is for them not to kill each other. That is the ultimate goal,” Lowe said. “But, you know, the goal prior to that is for them to understand that we can break generational curses, that we don’t have to be what the people before us said that we were.”
The videos aim to show real stories of outreach efforts happening in neighborhoods across Pennsylvania.
“I think what’s important here is these are stories that are happening in your neighborhood, not once, twice or five times, but hundreds of times, because we scaled up community prevention programs in a way that they could really work with the whole host of high-risk individuals in a place like York,” Garber said.
The plan is for more videos to come out soon, highlighting more communities, like Lancaster and Pittsburgh.