Cohort 1

Innovation Fund Grantees

Each cohort mem­ber designed a cap­stone project relat­ed to the devel­op­ment of a gun vio­lence reduc­tion pro­gram or inno­va­tion. Each project was cre­at­ed with feed­back from a team of advi­sors, and stu­dents defend­ed their work before a pan­el to com­plete the program.

An ​“inno­va­tion fund” cre­at­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go and the Casey Foun­da­tion grant­ed eight excep­tion­al projects seed fund­ing for addi­tion­al con­sul­ta­tion, imple­men­ta­tion or evaluation:

• GID Uni­ver­si­ty is a work­force devel­op­ment pro­gram designed by Rashee­dat Fetu­ga (Nashville, TN). It equips north Nashville youth most at risk for gun vio­lence involve­ment with the skills to lead pub­lic safe­ty change, gun vio­lence pre­ven­tion and com­mu­ni­ty transformation.
• Voic­es of Pow­er, an ini­tia­tive found­ed by De’Angelo Har­ris-Rosa (Philadel­phia, PA), advances pub­lic edu­ca­tion and dis­course around CVI. It includes a radio show and stream­ing video pod­cast with lead­ers in the field.
• The Red Light Ini­tia­tive, a trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice frame­work devel­oped by Jovan Davis (Wash­ing­ton, D.C.), address­es the root caus­es of the emo­tion­al pain that can lead to gun violence.
• 4 Social Peace is an ini­tia­tive found­ed by Patrick Young (New Orleans, LA). It devel­ops inter­ven­tions that dis­man­tle aggres­sion and fos­ter a pos­i­tive online envi­ron­ment through a com­pre­hen­sive and inte­grat­ed dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ty vio­lence inter­ven­tion strategy.
• CTVIP Mul­ti-Tiered Data Man­age­ment Sys­tem, a per­for­mance mon­i­tor­ing tool devel­oped by Alivia Lan­g­ley (New Haven, CT), tracks resource uti­liza­tion and par­tic­i­pant outcomes.
• CHVPS Employ­ee Men­tal Health & Well­ness Pol­i­cy, a frame­work cre­at­ed by Guadalupe Wash­ing­ton (Har­ris Co., TX), pro­motes a pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment that sup­ports men­tal health and well-being for com­mu­ni­ty health and vio­lence pre­ven­tion staff and those they serve.
• SWOT Analy­sis of UCAN Chicago’s Vio­lence Inter­ven­tion and Pre­ven­tion is a com­mu­ni­ty-based vio­lence inter­ven­tion and pre­ven­tion pro­gram cre­at­ed by Edwin Gal­let­ti (Chica­go, IL). It reduces indi­vid­ual youth par­tic­i­pa­tion in crime and vio­lence, address­es trau­ma, improves aca­d­e­m­ic engage­ment and suc­cess and meets youth devel­op­ment needs through coach­ing and mediation.
• Oper­a­tion RESPOND Expan­sion is a mobile cri­sis man­age­ment inter­ven­tion unit built by Dante John­son (Bal­ti­more, MD). It tar­gets indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies who are impact­ed by gun vio­lence and pro­vides them with sup­port ser­vices and work­force devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. John­son also served as one of the Cohort 1 com­mence­ment speakers.