Advocate/activist Alim Howell held a recent virtual meeting with the Philadelphia Office of Safe Neighborhoods to discuss his concerns about gun violence in the city.
Joining the call were Philadelphia Office of Safe Neighborhoods Executive Director Shondell Revell, Program Specialist Chelsea Gillette, Director of Group Violence Intervention Deion Sumpter and Director of Programs and Community Outreach Keith Scott.
The office implements strategies and initiatives to prevent, reduce and end violence in Philadelphia and is particularly focused on addressing gun violence.
“We are there for all our constituents and want them to know we are with them in their everyday lives to provide community services and programs for them to help. It is not just our city of Philadelphia who gun violence is affecting, it is all over. It is mainly at the federal level where all this can be achieved by putting an end to it,” Sumpter said.
Scott said, “There needs to be more stakeholders involved with our gun violence programs. The more people who get involved that’s the more likely it will get solved.”
The Office of Safe Neighborhoods works to create safer communities by promoting violence-prevention citywide. partnering with law enforcement and city agencies.
The plan takes a public health approach to violence that uses science and data to better understand the problem. The overall approach is to dramatically reduce the killings and shootings in Philadelphia.
OSN supports the Community Crisis Intervention Program, Violence Prevention Partnership, Targeted Community Investment Grant Program, Group Violence Intervention and Rapid Response Team.
“Here in our office we can only do but so much. It does end with a higher level of political government to put in legislation that will make it useful to stop guns from getting in our streets. Our office works alongside the office of public safety, too, in hindsight of these violence efforts to address,” Gillette said.
Howell said, “I feel I was talking with the right people and correct staff that really works closely in trying to solve this gun violence dilemma. It is a very challenging situation and task and has been for decades. But with hope gun violence against Philadelphia should go down and stop. The message has to keep getting pushed though assertively and decisively for all of us, especially those who use the guns wrongfully, to get the point across that there should be no guns in our neighborhoods and in our street communities.”Contact information for the Philadelphia Office of Safe Neighborhoods can be found on its website at phila.gov/departments/office-of-safe-neighborhoods. ••
