What is ‘Cure Violence’? A breakdown of the program advocates want to bring to Columbus
The 60 homicides Columbus counted from January 2020 through this past February were just a fraction of the violence that sent victims seeking treatment at Piedmont Columbus Regional’s two hospitals here.
The total number of assaults in those 13 months adds up to around 1,500 cases, Reggie Lewis told those gathered Monday to hear about an initiative to fight such violence.
“The cost associated with that was in the millions,” said Lewis, a former police officer who’s now one of the leaders in a local initiative to start a “Cure Violence” program here. “We have over $3.4 million invested in some of these gun shots, and some of these assaults, in a one-year period.”
The Cure Violence program first implemented in a Chicago neighborhood in 2000 treats violence like a spreading epidemic that requires a concentration of resources to stop. The initial program led to a significant drop in violence in its first implementation, and since has been expanded to other cities and to other countries.
“It’s a global program that has worked really well in some places,” said Cedric Hill II, another advocate for bringing Cure Violence to Columbus.
He cited these results:
- Chicago had 48% reduction in shootings.
- Baltimore saw a 56% drop in homicides and a 44% decrease in shootings.
- Philadelphia had a 30% reduction in shootings.
“There was one site in Honduras that went 17 months without a shooting,” Hill added. “So these are the types of results that we are hoping to bring to the Columbus area, and we genuinely believe that we can cure violence in this city.”
But implementing the program still is months away, and Cure Violence will participate only if it believes Columbus successfully can use its methods.
What is Cure Violence?
Cure Violence employs community resources in a broad-based approach to keep violence from recurring. It targets specific neighborhoods and works with residents to resolve issues that plague those areas.
Crucial to the program are “interrupters,” people with a background that gives them credibility among those they’re trying to reach: They could be former gang members, drug dealers or ex-convicts.
They are tasked with assignments such as visiting emergency rooms where victims of assault are being treated, to talk to the victims, their families and any allies who might vow vengeance.
The interrupters are supposed to talk them out of it, to emphasize the costs of retaliation and cut short the cycle of violence that could ensue.
Another tactic is ensuring people convicted of violent crimes do not offend again, when released from prison. Cure Violence can offer re-entry programs and mentors to help them get education and training for a steady job, possibly through a technical school or other institution.
Were Columbus able to adopt the program, it would be administered through the local department of public health.
Dr. Asante Hilts of the health department said gun violence now is the leading cause of death for Black males ages 15 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“From a public health standpoint, we target leading causes of death, and traditionally violence is not seen as a health problem,” she said. “But we are going to treat violence as an epidemic in the same way that we treat other epidemics.”
That means taking a data-driven approach to pinpointing the source of the violence and preventing its spread, much like tracking the COVID-19 virus and trying to reduce its infection rate.
The interrupters used to cut short retaliation shootings are akin to public health workers fighting a disease, she said.
Program start date
Lewis said the assessment that council just funded will take two or three months, likely starting in May. It requires collecting and analyzing data and meeting with activists, residents, professionals and other “community partners” to develop specific plans.
“We look at the data, and the Cure Violence global team basically goes in and listens to us to see what’s going on in our community,” Lewis said.
Columbus Council at its last meeting allocated $25,000 to fund an assessment to determine whether the program’s feasible here. If all goes well, and Cure Violence agrees to work with Columbus, advocates will go back to council to request $500,000 to fund the program through its first year.
The implementation likely would not begin until the fourth quarter of this year, Lewis said.
Though the Cure Violence organization would provide Columbus with technical support, those doing the legwork would all be local, a necessity in ensuring the interrupters have credibility in local neighborhoods, advocates said.
“We want to make sure we get this right the first time, and not have any failings,” Lewis said.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 4:58 PM.