Program aims to end cycle of violence
Calling violence a public health crisis of epidemic proportions, Columbus officials are creating a program that will send social workers to the streets in an effort to address the trauma caused by homicides and other violent acts.
The initiative, which will be piloted in the Linden and Hilltop neighborhoods, represents an expansion of Columbus Public Health's Community, Action, Resilience and Empowerment (CARE) Coalition.
Funded by $175,000 in general fund money, the effort will start July 1 and run through Dec. 31, 2018. It will focus on educating the community about the kinds of trauma people experience and offering them services.
"To have a traumainformed lens means you're asking what happened to a person instead of just accusing them of doing the wrong
thing,” said Marian Stuckey, who oversees the CARE program.
“You want to change your perspective into one that values the trauma they’ve experienced and think about their behaviors in a different way because of that. So it’s not what’s wrong with the person; it’s what happened to them.”
Workers will go into neighborhoods within 48 hours of a violent or traumatic event and try to help the community cope and build resiliency. They also will create community coalitions in both Linden and the Hilltop. Plans are to knock on doors and hold meetings to educate and train neighborhood residents about trauma.
“Violence is on the rise in our country, and Columbus is not immune to that, and this is a recognition that ... we cannot police our way out of violence,” said City Council President Zach Klein. “It’s also a recognition that trauma that individuals receive throughout their life in various ways — whether it be personal, socioeconomic or because of violence in their community — can lead to violence.
“We are testing how we can intervene in someone’s life and intervene in a neighborhood in order to address that trauma to prevent violence from occurring.”
Trauma-informed care can involve a number of traumatic life experiences, such as childhood abuse or mental health issues in a family, said Dr. Teresa Long, the city’s health commissioner. It is already used, she said, in local schools and by agencies that address children’s services and developmental disabilities.
“This will build stronger, more engaged neighborhoods, and that is a resiliency factor,” she said.
The announcement of the initiative comes on the heels of the People’s Justice Project reiterating their request for an investment in community-focused publichealth initiatives to fight gun violence. Lead organizer Tammy Fournier-Alsaada said that violence must be addressed as a disease that affects public health.
Fournier-Alsaada said her organization is involved with the CARE Coalition and has met with city officials to encourage this type of approach. She said the effort must involve community members, not just city leadership and staff, in decision-making and strategy.
“I definitely view this as a
“Violence is on the rise in our country, and Columbus is not immune to that, and this is a recognition that ... we cannot police our way out of violence.”
— City Council President Zach Klein
step in the right direction for the city,” she said. “It has the potential to be a win because now our city is talking about trauma and public health, not just police.”
It makes sense to approach violence as a health issue, said Charles Ransford, director of science and policy at Chicago-based Cure Violence.
He said people can become violent after being exposed to violence. He likened it to the flu, which can rapidly spread through communities.
Ransford said cities across the country are starting to implement such strategies, and that Columbus might be ahead of the curve. New York and Los Angeles, using health approaches to violence, have homicide rates below the national average, he said. And when a Cure Violence program was cut in Chicago in 2015, he said, the number of homicides nearly doubled.
Columbus’ CARE effort was formed in 2016. It grew out of the response from Columbus Public Health, police and Netcare to a 2015 triple homicide on the Hilltop.
Stuckey said the goal then was to provide supportive services for a community reeling from constant trauma, loss and grief. Workers went door to door asking neighbors what they felt they needed.
“From there, we realized that something more had to be done and that we needed to come together to collaboratively respond to trauma and violence, because it’s happening all the time and people need to vent and need to have outlets for that trauma and those issues,” Stuckey said.
The coalition has five working groups, including those that address crisis intervention, community outreach and trauma training. The new funding will add a manager, two outreach workers, a social worker and an office assistant.