RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A new initiative is coming to Raleigh.
The Community Violence Intervention program was introduced by Raleigh’s top cop Wednesday.
The program, that is a collaboration made up of several organizations, provides support for people at risk of violence.
From Uvalde to Highland Park, gun violence is happening both nationally as well as locally.
“I think people are on edge coming out of a pandemic,” Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said. “I think we have mental health issues that are also contributing to that.”
The Raleigh Police Department, Raleigh-Apex NAACP and other organizations are working to figure out ways to curb gun violence through the Community Violence Intervention program.
The program aimed to support and identify people at risk of violence.
Raleigh-Apex NAACP president, Gerald Givens Jr., said the program is broken down into four different parts: violence intervention, cognitive behavior therapy, survivor support services and ecological systems.
“That first phase, violence intervention, pretty much deals with the boots on the ground and a hospital violence intervention program.”
Givens said the program would be similar to Durham’s Bull City United where violence interrupters and outreach workers would act as mediators in troubled communities.
“We’re gonna have people who are familiar and who’ve experienced gun violence, and they’ll be case managers that work at a hospital,” Givens said. “Then will have some folks that we’ll pay to be inside the communities and have their ear to the ground and be there to negotiate the cease-fires and to prevent gun violence in the community.”
The Raleigh-Apex NAACP said they are currently in the early phases of the project.
Right now, they are developing a gun violence prevention exploration team that would gather input from different cities that have reduced gun violence by 30 percent or more.
Givens hopes to have the program up and running by January.
