At a conference for community anti-violence groups in Philadelphia, a sense that their efforts are working

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There is no clear reason for the recent drop in violent crime in Philadelphia, but community anti-violence organizations are sharing in the credit for a sharp reduction in homicides. The Office of Public Safety is holding a two-day conference, its first, for community organizations that receive anti-violence grants from the city.

Shantay Love recalls a young man who came to the EMIR Healing Center in Germantown after his cousin was killed.

“He was so angry. He was ready to go out and do something, and he kept remembering that, in our Brother to Brother [program], they were saying, ‘Listen, if you’re feeling that and you cannot process, call us, get to our door and we will walk with you till you kind of slow down that emotion.’”

EMIR was founded by a mom after her son was killed, in the belief that assisting survivors and communities affected by violence would save lives. Love says that young man’s story, and a recent decrease in violent crime, are proof of the concept.

“We are the example of a public health model wrapping our arms around a neighborhood and not only [helping] them heal but helping to prevent future violence,” Love said.

Makesha Maples, who runs a nonprofit called There’s Hope, sees lack of income as a source of crime, so over the summer, with city funding, she held classes on low-barrier job skills, from face-painting for kids’ parties to ServSafe food-handling certification.

“We had two people open up food trucks. We had seven people become managers at the stores where they worked. We have another girl opening a restaurant — and she couldn’t open it without that ServSafe, and she got it,” said Maples.

“We have 15 people that do face-painting on the weekend for $25 an hour — so, yeah, it was a great impact.”

Chief Public Safety Director Adam Geer says the city is studying what has gone into the reduction in homicides and he expects to find a link to such work.

“That’s the secret sauce, I think,” said Geer. “They were talking to folks, credible messengers, putting out fires that we don’t even see. I think it’s pretty clear that they played a very major role in what we’re seeing today.”

The city gave a total of $23 million this year to some 200 violence-prevention groups — There’s Hope and AMIR among them — in the form of grants of anywhere from $1,000 to $1 million,to do direct intervention at the neighborhood level. The city has budgeted almost $29 million for next year, and compliance manager Kenneth Johnson thinks the recent drop in crime shows it’s paying off.

“They’re on the ground, they’re doing the work directly with the community. They understand what the motivators are that may have been driving the violence,” Johnson said.

He says the conference hopes to promote collaboration.

“We want to get our grantees to work together to maximize the impact they’re having in their communities,” Johnson said.

Johnson agrees that the grassroots approach is part of the drop in crime and he hopes to keep it falling.