East Lansing, Advance Peace partner to prevent gun violence in the neighborhood

• The City of East Lansing and Advance Peace have partnered for the next two years to prevent gun violence in the neighborhood.
• Advance Peace has been working in Lansing for nearly two years and says they decreased gun deaths by 65% in their first year of work.
• Video shows the group and the city talking about the importance of the partnership, and how the prevention will work.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

A new partnership between the City of East Lansing and a gun violence intervention group aims to lower gun violence in the neighborhood. And officials say it's a needed step.

"As we saw last year at Michigan State it can happen anywhere at any time," Mayor George Brookover said.

Leaders at Advance Peace Lansing saw firsthand that gun violence can come to our neighborhood. But since forming through the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) in October 2022, they've also seen change.

"We identify individuals who are at the center of gun violence and recruit them to join an 18-month experience," MPHI Chief Strategy Officer Paul Elam said.

Advance Peace believes their work is making an impact, and now it's expanding.

"With out staff, we realized that some instances of violence were actually in the East Lansing space," Elam said. "So I think it's incumbent upon us to get smarter about how kids are actually accessing those weapons."

Advance Peace recently presented to the East Lansing City Council about a partnership and they unanimously approved it.

"I think East Lansing is a relatively safe city," Mayor Brookover said. "But of course we thought it was when we had a shooter at Michigan State University, and the shooter walked literally through the entire length of the City of East Lansing to go back to his house in Lansing before he was apprehended."

"It's a risk management type of thing where you just never know," Brookover said.

As far as next steps, Elam says Advance Peace will take time to research the area to learn where violence has taken place in previous years before implementing their strategy in the neighborhood.

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