Credit: (Bobby Brier/NJ Spotlight News)Anti-violence advocates and city leaders gathered last week throughout Paterson to acknowledge and celebrate community members who helped to lower the rates of gun violence in their neighborhoods this summer.
The event, hosted by the Paterson Healing Collective and co-sponsored by 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson, aimed to recognize the residents of blocks in the first, fourth and fifth wards. They participated in and won the collective’s “Summer Peace Challenge,” according to Liza Chowdhury, the executive director of the Paterson Healing Collective and Reimagining Justice Inc. These three wards historically have had some of the highest rates of violence in the city, according to Chowdhury.
The 90-day contest encouraged every neighborhood in the city to lower the number of gun violence incidents and to push for a summer free from shootings and homicides. Over 15 neighborhoods signed up for the summer challenge, according to Chowdhury, and the winners were determined by tallying which blocks had the least amount of gun violence victims, she said.
Credit: (Bobby Brier/NJ Spotlight News)In addition to promoting public safety in their neighborhoods through the peace challenge, some community members went a step further and cleaned sections of the city that were previously littered with trash and debris, according to Chowdhury.
The citywide celebration was among some of the latest efforts made recently by violence intervention programs throughout the state to address gun violence in cities and the mental health impacts brought by that violence. Earlier this summer, Salvation and Social Justice, a Trenton-based nonprofit, hosted its third annual boxing program that aimed to teach kids between the ages of seven and 17 about the sport while instilling confidence, self-discipline and techniques for emotional regulation and self-protection. The program also aimed to give kids an alternative to settling disputes through gun violence.
Additionally, Cure4Camden, a community-based violence intervention program, hosted a gun violence awareness event and community prayer walk at Pyne Poynt Park in Camden in August. The goal of that event was to bring the community together, to stop the violence in the city, and to represent loved ones taken by gun violence, according to Maria Hernandez, the program supervisor for Cure4Camden.
For the 90-day “Summer Peace Challenge” in Paterson, the healing collective visited 17 different locations in the first, fourth and fifth wards that were previously classified as “hot spots,” or areas where there were high concentrations of gun violence, according to Casey Melvin, the field operations director and community-based violence intervention coordinator for the collective. Here, members of the collective spoke with residents and said that if they could keep their neighborhoods safe for 90 days throughout the summer, they would be rewarded not only with a celebration, but with a certificate and training to mediate future conflicts when they occur.
“To see them (victims of gun violence) come out for an event like this, be supportive, be interactive, it does a lot for us and lets us know that the work that we’re doing is not in vain,” said Melvin.
“This shows that we care for our community,” Keshawn Lawson, an outreach worker and mentor for the Paterson Healing Collective, said of the event. “We’re going to provide for you. We are here for you,” Lawson said.
The most important component of the recent event, according to Jason Williams of Montclair State University, is how it “really cultivates” a sense of sustenance that the community itself can remedy the pains within that community.
“The community has the power to avenge itself of all that is bad within — whether it be crime, whether it be trauma and so forth,” said Williams, a professor of justice studies at the university. That’s “very important,” especially for communities like Paterson, where for so long residents felt helpless and hopeless, Williams said.
“If nothing else, these types of gatherings brings a sense of hope and relief, and that’s very important too,” said Williams.
Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced in late September that $14.5 million will be made available through a “competitive grant process” to support community-based violence intervention programs throughout the state, with funding for the grant cycle beginning in 2025, according to a recent news release from the attorney general’s office. Since 2021, the Murphy Administration has invested nearly $55 million in community-based violence intervention programming, according to the office.
Melvin of the Paterson Healing Collective says that the government really has to look at violence as a public health crisis and “deal with it accordingly.”
“I would like to see not just a summer peace challenge, but a yearly peace challenge, or just a yearly peace initiative,” Melvin said. “Which is peace, prosperity (and) safety every single day, but that’s going to require some more investment from (the) government.”
