Temple University Web Survey Analyzes Youth Related Anti-Violence Services

Investigators gather evidence after a man was shot several times and critically wounded in the Frankford section of Philadelphia in September, 2012.

The City of Philadelphia and Temple University’s Department of Criminal Justice are conducting a web survey that aims to provide a better understanding of the landscape of youth related organizations working to reduce violence throughout the city. In turn, the City hopes to use the survey’s findings to identify unmet needs and gaps in services that can then be addressed through strategic planning.

The survey is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, an initiative to better coordinate anti-violence organizations in cities.

In Philadelphia, there are a number of organizations addressing the issue of violence, but they are often rooted in specific communities or target groups and do not tend to directly cooperate.

Jim MacMillan, founder of The Gun Crisis Reporting Project and assistant director at Temple’s Center for Public Interest Journalism (not involved with the survey), said that he has noticed a lack of coordination between Philadelphia’s anti-violence organizations. The cause of this, he explained, may have something to do with the fact that these organizations have very different ways of addressing the problem.

“I see two different camps in violence reduction,” MacMillan said.  “There are people who believe that the solution to reducing urban violence is in social systems, social support, that we need to provide  jobs and opportunity. And of course that makes sense, but in this economy and this locale I don’t feel terribly optimistic in the short term. In the short term, I focus more on intervention programs that are likely to reduce violence just by getting people to stop pulling the trigger.”

Regardless of these differences, MacMillan and the Gun Crisis Reporting Project are tying to build a hub for all anti-violence organizations, which is why guncrisis.org includes a directory of 27 organizations, from foundations to community groups, that are working to prevent violence and help the community deal with the day to day impact of homicides, shootings and the shattered families they create.

These organizations form a large portion of the landscape that the the survey is trying to understand. Still, MacMillan, who tracks this issue exhaustively, concedes that there is still much to be learned about anti-violence organizations and their effectiveness.

“I don’t think there is enough awareness of their existence, of which ones are more effective or which ones might be most relevant to any particular citizen,” he said.

( Photograph by Joseph Kaczmarek for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project)