How Much Money Does Cure Violence Need In.st Louis

Cure Violence appears to bring down St. Louis' however-high homicide numbers

Published January thirteen, 2022 at five:15 PM CST

As homicides continue to tick up in St. Louis, many officials say gun violence should be approached as a public health issue. — Homicides dropped significantly in four out of five St. Louis neighborhoods in 2021 using the Cure Violence intervention program.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is crediting an intervention programme known every bit Cure Violence for helping to reduce the city's homicides by more than 25% in 2021.

"We all desire to feel safety in our neighborhoods," Jones said Thursday at a press conference trumpeting the programme. "The Missouri Legislature prevents our city from making common-sense gun laws. And then we have to look at other tools at our disposal to prevent violent crime."

Despite the big drib, at least 195 people were notwithstanding killed in the city, a number that Jones acknowledged is unacceptable.

"Cure Violence isn't a silver bullet. It was never built to be a silver bullet," she said. "Just it is one piece of a larger holistic strategy."

The Chicago-based program trains people who live in areas with high law-breaking rates to intervene in conflicts. The goal is to forbid disagreements from escalating to tearing crime, and to provide social services such every bit chore training to neighborhood residents.

Cure Violence staffers began operating in the Walnut Park, Wells-Goodfellow, Hamilton Heights and Dutchtown neighborhoods throughout the latter half of 2020, a year when 263 people were killed. Despite the pandemic, interrupters were able to intervene in more than 600 conflicts across the three operating areas. (Wells-Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights are counted as ane operating area, though they are unlike neighborhoods.)

"Fifty-viii interruptions is actually huge for us, for a small neighborhood," said Mulugheta Teferi, chief of staff at the Urban League of St. Louis, which runs the Walnut Park site. "Fifty-eight people could accept been dead, if they were not interrupted. That's how we await at it."

Overall, homicides were down 26% in the city from 2020 to 2021. In four of the 5 Cure Violence locations, homicides dropped at a rate college than the overall decrease: 42% in Hamilton Heights, 70 percent in Wells-Goodfellow, 50% in Walnut Park East and 80% in Walnut Park West.

Dutchtown was the lone outlier — homicides there really rose 50% over the same fourth dimension period. But Mujaa Williams, who runs the neighborhood's program, said the work is however worth it.

"We're asking a cardinal question — are these neighborhoods worth saving?" he said. "And for the almost part, the feedback we receive is that information technology is — they are worth saving."

Jones will use federal coronavirus relief funding to expand violence intermission programs. The verbal locations have not yet been decided.

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