ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s second-highest-ranking official stopped in Allentown on Friday as part of his tour to “highlight organizations that are doing good work to take on the epidemic of gun violence.”
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis held a brief news conference before talking with leaders from Promise Neighborhoods and Lehigh Valley Health Network, as well as local officials, at the nonprofit’s office on Union Street.
- Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis visited Promise Neighborhood’s Allentown office Friday morning
- The event was a stop on his statewide “Safer Communities” tour
- Davis highlighted a partnership between Promise Neighborhoods and Lehigh Valley Health Network to reduce gun violence
Promise Neighborhoods and LVHN run a “Cure Violence” program that was launched with a $300,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which Davis now chairs.
“We want to go back to Harrisburg and figure out how we can support programs like this, and how we can spread them to other parts of the state."Lt. Gov. Austin Davis
The program got a $2 million federally funded grant from the commission in 2022 to expand its reach beyond the Lehigh Valley.
Davis said the collaborative Cure Violence initiative is a “phenomenal program” that he’ll hold up as an example of what is working in the fight against gun violence.
“We want to go back to Harrisburg and figure out how we can support programs like this, and how we can spread them to other parts of the state,” Davis told LehighValleyNews.com.
With several state representatives by his side, the lieutenant governor called on senators to send the budget, which allocates $40 million for violence-intervention programs,” to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.
“We can stop the bleeding; we can repair the injured organ; we can fix your broken bones. That's just treating a symptom; it's not treating the cause."Dr. Mark Cipolle, chief of Lehigh Valley Health Network's trauma division
The Republican-controlled Senate has said its members won’t return to Harrisburg until mid-September as it remains in a standoff with Shapiro.
Gun violence is ‘a public health problem’
The Cure Violence initiative is a grassroots collaboration between LHVN and Promise Neighborhoods to reduce gun violence, which Dr. Mark Cipolle, chief of LVHN’s trauma division, called a “public health problem.”
Cipolle said many victims of gun violence in the Lehigh Valley are treated at one of the network’s many hospitals, but providers are limited in how they can help.
“We can stop the bleeding, we can repair the injured organ, we can fix your broken bones,” Cipolle said. “That's just treating a symptom — it's not treating the cause.
"So we’ve realized as a health care network, we have to go beyond the doors of the hospital to help our community.”
“Oftentimes, we are focused on the problem, which is very difficult. But we don't recognize that there are folks working every day to solve this epidemic of gun violence.”Lt. Gov. Austin Davis
The Cure Violence program is based on an international model that treats violence “as a contagious disease,” according to Pas Simpson, a Promise Neighborhoods credible messenger who spoke in a video shown at the event.
The model has worked to reduce violence in some cities by up to 80%, Simpson said.
“We use the Cure Violence model so that we can see the human side of the victims and the perpetrators of violence," he said.
Highlighting ‘folks working every day’
Promise Neighborhoods’ credible-messengers program works with the families of shooting victims, and the organization also has “violence interrupters” who work to mediate conflicts, prevent retaliation and connect people to services.
“Oftentimes, we are focused on the problem, which is very difficult. But we don't recognize that there are folks working every day to solve this epidemic of gun violence.”Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis
Davis said a major goal of his “Safer Communities” tour was to shine light on the “folks on the ground,” such as Promise Neighborhood’s credible messengers.
“Oftentimes, we are focused on the problem, which is very difficult,” Davis said. “But we don't recognize that there are folks working every day to solve this epidemic of gun violence.”
Promise Neighborhoods’ credible-messengers program works with victims’ families, and the organization also employs “violence interrupters” who work to mediate conflicts, prevent retaliation and connect people to services.
