Advance Peace Presents at City Council Meetings

MPHI’s Advance Peace Initiative recently gave presentations at two local city council meetings. On June 18, Charles Richardson, Strategy Manager for Advance Peace, and Dr. Paul Elam, Chief Strategy Officer, presented on behalf of Advance Peace at the East Lansing City Council meeting. This presentation’s purpose was to persuade the city to grant funding to expand Advance Peace’s efforts into East Lansing. On June 24, Dr. Shondra Marshall, Director of the Center for Racial and Social Justice, and Charles Richardson presented at the Lansing City Council meeting. This presentation included updates on the program’s progress and plans for growth.

• The council voted unanimously in favor of a partnership with the program. This partnership will include a two-year contract of $175,282.
• The Department of Justice will also contribute $175,000 to support Advance Peace’s operations in East Lansing.
• The program plans to place a “Neighborhood Change Agent” in East Lansing. This will include working with five fellows who are at risk of gun violence involvement.
• Program employees will also conduct outreach and build relationships in the community, to identify prospective fellows and reduce retaliatory gun violence.

“Staff do street outreach daily,” said Dr. Paul Elam. “We respond to every shooting in the community to identify victims, perpetrators and to determine if there is going to be a response to that shooting. We develop relationships with the family members of victims and we provide ongoing case management, mentoring, cognitive behavioral therapy.”

• Advance Peace expressed their intention to continue growing their personnel and expanding their efforts throughout Lansing and neighboring cities. The organization has succeeded in expanding into southeast Lansing and seeks to expand next into the northwest.
• 850 hours have been spent engaging and building trust in the community to become credible messengers and mentors for individuals qualifying for the program. Advance Peace pledged their commitment to providing a safe space for individuals who are affected by gun violence.
• Advance Peace reported that they have mediated 146 community conflicts that could have resulted in gun violence.

“I think one of the most important things that we would want to highlight is that our fellows are still alive, and 93% of them have indicated that they are no longer engaging in conflicts that would result in using a weapon,” Richardson said.