In an effort to stem rising homicide numbers, Allegheny County will spend $50 million over five years on anti-violence initiatives, both county-wide supports for violence prevention and community-specific programs – many focused outside the city of Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County human services officials say they’re aiming to bring an evidence-based approach, funding programs that work. The efforts will be coordinated at the county level, but also focused on the highest-need areas.
County researchers noted last year that homicides are heavily concentrated in a handful of high-need communities and overwhelmingly impact young Black men. Both Pittsburgh and Allegheny County’s homicide rate had been declining in recent years, but both have spiked since 2020, in line with national trends. From 2019 onward, most homicides in the county happened outside of the city, a reversal from trends in prior years. There were 122 homicides county-wide in 2022, a three percent increase from the prior year.
Investment in anti-violence programs at this scale is new for the county’s Department of Human Services but makes sense because violence impacts much of the other work the agency does, said DHS director Erin Dalton.
“The community effects of violence, I think, is … well known and well documented. If we want our young people to grow up healthy, able to get to school, do well in school, live fulfilling lives, then we've got to take care of this violence. The evidence is very clear about the detrimental effects at the community level,” Dalton said.
Among the groups receiving funding for targeted areas are: Focus on Renewal (Stowe, McKees Rocks), Penn Hills School District, South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace (South Hilltop, Mount Oliver), Greater Valley Community Services (Woodland Hills School District – Braddock, East Pittsburgh, North Braddock, Rankin, Swissvale, and Turtle Creek), Steel Rivers Council of Governments (Mon Valley – Clairton, Duquesne, Homestead, and McKeesport), and Community Forge (Greater Wilkinsburg Area), according to an announcement last week.
Among the initiatives the money will fund: Cure Violence treats violence like a disease that can be prevented through “interrupting” it; school-based program Becoming A Man (BAM), which works with at-risk youth; and the Rapid Employment and Development Initiative (READI), a jobs program that is primarily focused on those most at-risk for violence.
Many of the organizations are outside the city of Pittsburgh, though DHS officials stressed their coordinated and county-wide efforts will include the city, and Mayor Ed Gainey’s Plan for Peace. There are also some targeted areas that include both parts of the city and parts just outside of it.
“You can't fund [this work in] Mt. Oliver Borough without also funding some of the surrounding city communities,” said Nick Cotter, a DHS analyst.
Allegheny County’s dozens of municipalities and school districts call for a unified approach, particularly when many of the places most impacted by violence are small communities with tight budgets, Dalton said.
“It's impossible for these smaller municipalities to compete for the kind of funding support or launch this kind of effort on their own,” she said. “And I think also the county can play this important role of coordination because disjointed efforts in this space aren't going to get us where we need to go.”
Groups who will be involved in county-wide coordination who received funding include: Neighborhood Resilience Project for countywide coordination; Social Contract to operate “shooting review boards,” which aim to spot trends and use data to prevent shootings; Reimagine Reentry for hospital-based intervention, where caseworkers visit shooting victims at hospitals to stop retaliatory violence; and Center for Victims and Community Empowerment Association for coordination of victim and family supports.
Alisia Nichols, senior consultant at Wilmington, Delaware-based Social Contract, praised the county for making “long-term, sustainable investments” that would make an impact.
Richard Garland, executive director of Reimagine Rentry, said he’s looking forward to collaborating with others involved.
“If there’s some issues that are going on in the streets, we can get in front of them,” he said.
