Violence interventionists call for "sustainable funding" at Michigan Advocacy Day
Organizers estimate upwards of 1,000 people came out for the third annual Community Violence Intervention Advocacy Day at the Michigan State Capitol. The goal was to lobby for more sustainable funding and call attention to the work community violence intervention groups do to prevent loss of life.
Community violence intervention takes many forms, and that work looks different depending on who you ask. But on Thursday in Lansing, groups from across the state came together for a common goal.
"We want to see our communities freer, we want to see our communities safer," Dujuan Zoe Kennedy, executive director of FORCE Detroit, said.
Zoe Kennedy said their goal is to advocate for more funding.
"Sustainable funding, not funding for a year, two years," Zoe Kennedy said. "We demand that we get sustainable funding like any other front-line worker in the public safety field."
William Nickolson with Beat Da Odds said violence intervention work can vary.
"We're in neighborhoods, we're in schools on a day-to-day basis, we're at rec centers, we're at the juvenile detention facilities, we're doing mentoring, we're doing re-entry type work. We're just trying to fill in the gaps wherever we can to be a resource to the youth," he said.
The advocates broke into smaller groups to visit with lawmakers in their offices.
"We're going into the office very calm and collected and offering them this package to consider — the crowd today — to consider what's most important: that we want babies to live, families to live, communities safe," Pastor Maurice L. Hardwick said. "We want them to partner with us. Don't fight us, unite with us."
For Sherri Scott, who lost her daughter to gun violence back in 2019 because of a shooting at a park, community violence intervention is about changing a mindset.
"Leave your guns at home. Do not just pull out a gun because you're upset with someone. You've got to be able to rectify the situation, and that's what a bunch of the CVI groups out here are doing, because they step in and they stop the beef or whatever they got going on before it escalates," she said.
