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

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  • COVID-19 Eased Drug Treatment Rules—And That Saved Lives.

    Rules changes designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at drug-treatment clinics had the benefit of improving access to treatment, which experts say has saved thousands of lives. Although overdose deaths have increased during the pandemic, they would be far higher but for emergency rules allowing for telehealth consultations with medical professionals, fewer restrictions on the use and storage of long-term supplies of methadone, and insurance coverage of addiction medications. Though not everyone prefers telephone consults over in-person visits, enough do that advocates want to make the changes permanent.

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  • Homicides dropped after Philly gangs signed a 1974 peace pact. What can we learn from the org that brokered the truce?

    The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.

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  • La lutte contre les violences domestiques change des vies au Burundi

    Abatangamuco est un groupe d’hommes burundais qui utilisent les représentations théâtrales, les témoignages personnels, et les consultations individuelles pour changer les idées culturelles sur les violences domestiques. Avec plus de 8 000 hommes dans neuf provinces, le mouvement s'appuie sur les relations communautaires et les gouvernements locaux.

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  • A Philly jobs program lost six to a year of violence. Can it still help young people thrive?

    PowerCorpsPHL and Mural Arts' Guild have notched impressive results in job placements of young people with criminal records. The programs' employment training, paid apprenticeships, and art therapy classes have all been disrupted by 2020's pandemic, social unrest, and street violence. Private grants have largely made up for budget cuts from the city of Philadelphia. But the lack of face to face training and counseling has been disruptive. Both programs and their trainees are persevering despite longer odds, with workarounds that keep the programs afloat in difficult times.

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  • An oft-tried plan to curb violent crime in Baltimore resurfaces. City leaders say better leadership will bring better results.

    In the 1990s and again in 2014, when Baltimore used a strategy called focused deterrence to reduce street violence, it showed initial promise but then failed. Those failures can be tied to how the program was managed, and to changes in leadership, not to the approach itself. The strategy offers help to people at risk of shooting others or being shot, but threatens them with prosecution if they reject the help and commit violence. The revived Group Violence Reduction Strategy has worked well in many cities, including New Orleans, where Baltimore's current police chief came from.

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  • Illegal Out-of-State Gun Trafficking is Fueling Baltimore's Homicide Epidemic

    When Baltimore police shifted tactics starting in 2007, away from aggressive street stops aimed at arresting gun carriers toward regulating the supply of street guns at their sources, the city's murder rate plunged. Backed by studies on effective gun regulations, the focus on tracing crime guns to their sources, firearms traffickers and corrupt gun retailers, often in states with lax laws on gun sales, seemed to have significant positive effects. That strategy was largely abandoned and an emphasis on street enforcement resumed. Baltimore's homicides went back up.

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  • Gun advocates take the lead in embracing suicide prevention message

    An alliance between health professionals and gun owners has increased suicide-prevention education and training through multiple initiatives in many states. Groups like Washington’s Safer Homes and Forefront Suicide Prevention ground their message in problem-solving rather than threats to restrict gun owners’ rights. Backed by data showing the deadly correlation between gun ownership and suicide deaths, these groups have made peer counseling and suicide prevention more common components of gun safety education, and have spread gun-storage devices and strategies much more widely through gun owner circles.

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  • Indianapolis has poured millions into grant funding to fight crime. Has it worked?

    By one measure, a record number of homicides in 2020, Indianapolis' decision to pump $13 million into two crime-prevention grant programs looks like a failure. But program advocates and researchers say that may not be the most accurate measure. Data show that multiple community-based projects are steering young people away from crime and toward jobs. It's difficult to untangle crime's multiple causes and the effects these programs have had over the past six years, and whether homicides would have been even worse but for the efforts.

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  • In Denver, Unarmed Mental Health Workers Respond To Hundreds Of 911 Calls Instead Of Police

    Since Denver launched its Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program in June, it has handled more than 600 calls for help with a mental health clinician and a paramedic instead of sending police officers. Modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, STAR is based on the notion that low-level emergencies involving mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse do not require police responses, and in fact can more often end peacefully by removing police from the equation. STAR started small, with one van on duty during weekday hours. Police support the move, and often call in STAR for assistance.

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  • ‘How Did We Not Know?' Gun Owners Confront a Suicide Epidemic

    A public-education campaign to enlist gun owners in suicide prevention work by first informing them of the problem's scope has spread to programs in 21 states. Although the campaign's ultimate effects on suicide rates are not known, it has at least spurred gun-rights advocates to action, with safety and prevention messages spread through gun shows, retailers, trade groups, and gun ranges. The majority of gun deaths are suicides. Millions of guns have been sold during the pandemic and social-justice protests, elevating suicide risks. Safety measures include gun locks and having friends remove guns from homes.

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