New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City partners with CT Against Gun Violence
NEW HAVEN — City officials announced a new partnership with antiviolence organization CT Against Gun Violence Friday to plan the future Office of Violence Prevention that will strive to help safeguard residents against the continuing violence that affects life for many in the city.
Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal said, about the mission of the fledgling endeavor, “We know that meeting violence with violence only perpetuates harmful cycles of trauma.
“Yet the temptation to employ violence, to solve violence, always seems to be close at hand,” he said. “Whether it’s a personal retaliation, driven by the raw emotion of seeing a loved one get hurt, or individuals in groups that are carrying out misguided retribution efforts
—and having free flowing access to weapons to do so.”
“(Let us) also hear the voices of our Black and brown communities, that have said, over and over again, that violence perpetrated upon them at the hands of the state and the criminal justice system is also part of the problem,” Dalal said. “This pervasive culture of violence tears every day at the fabric of our communities, and it will perpetuate unless we start working on a culture shift, a shift of norms.”
The new office, he said, would fall under the auspices of the larger Department of Community Resilience, approved by the Board of Alders in recent
days, and “take a holistic approach in addressing violence,” focusing on upholding compassion, dignity and providing access to services.
CT Against Gun Violence would provide their passion and expertise to the process, Dalal said, and meet with community residents to create a blueprint for the office’s future.
Among other goals, the city wants to “make sure there’s outreach workers engaging in a conversation with every young person who’s at the verge of contemplating a retaliatory action,” ensure mediation is available for conflict resolution, and bring mental health care to communities,
rather than waiting for people to seek it, Dalal said..
Jeremy Stein, executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, applauded the city’s step, saying it spoke to the need to make similar investments in other communities.
He noted the violence in New Haven — there have been 264 incidents of gunfire in New Haven this year, including 22 homicides, he said — and he said Black Americans experience nearly 10 times the gun homicides and three times the fatal shootings, which include death by suicide, as white Americans do.
“It is our greatest cities that feel this impact the greatest. Community gun violence reductions must be a priority,” said Stein. “This initiative is designed to support those whose cries for help often go unanswered . ... A common thread in all of this is the people who live here, the people who have been traumatized here, and the people who have survived here, and deserve a better life, free of violence.”
The organization will hold a series of listening sessions in the coming days, seeking solutions to prevent and intervene in gun violence, as well as care for people afterwards, Stein said.
The effort also will strive to link resources to hot spots for violence in
New Haven, he said, and bring ideas from other communities that may help here. A report would be completed over several months, although the specific timeline is uncertain, Dalal said.
Mayor Justin Elicker said CT Against Gun Violence had demonstrated compassion in its longtime efforts to address gun violence in New Haven. The move, he said, continued a trend in New Haven to remain on the cutting edge of the issue.
“New Haven has been doing work for years that is innovative, that is backed by research, to respond to gun violence in a way that is not just about police,” said Elicker. “And we continue to work on innovating.”
In addition to the partnership, Elicker noted ongoing efforts to create community crisis response teams, which will send social workers to some emergency calls, and the creation of the Department of Community Resilience — under the violence prevention office will operate — to “more respond more holistically,” linking those involved in gun violence to mental health care and support services.
Among others, Thomas Daniels, head of support group “Fathers Cry Too;” Interim Chief Renee Dominguez; and Leonard Jahad, head of the CT Violence Intervention Program, which supervises a group of street outreach workers in New Haven and Hamden, praised the effort, noting the emotion of the moment and the setting.
The morning press conference took place at the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence, a memorial created by mothers that lost loved ones in the city.
An additional 10 bricks will soon be laid in the garden, Dominguez said.
“We want a day when we’re not adding any more bricks,” said Dominguez.
Past plans hadn’t worked, Jahad said, a change was needed.
“Where’s the path going to end? I’m just saying — not another brick; not another brick,” said Jahad.