Wilmington Releases Report Intended to Assist City Efforts to Reduce and Prevent Gun Violence

Mayor Mike Purzycki and City Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo today released a report from The Community Based Public Safety Collective (CBPS Collective)—a report that was requested by Wilmington to support City efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence. The CBPS Collective Report is posted on the City’s website at  and can be viewed and downloaded . The report will be discussed by CBPS Collective representatives at tonight’s meeting of City Council’s Public Safety Committee, which begins at 5 p.m. and will be televised on .

Mayor Purzycki, Chief of Staff Tanya Washington, 3rd District Council Member Zanthia Oliver, 6th District Council Member Yolanda McCoy, and 7th District Council Member Chris Johnson visited Newark, New Jersey, late last year to learn how the CBPS Collective had assisted that City in reducing gun violence. Wilmington then contracted with the Collective in early 2022 to conduct what the Collective refers to as a landscape analysis of Wilmington.

The landscape analysis included a review of local crime and hospital data, including demographics of victims and responsible parties, motivations of shootings, and 58 interviews with City leadership, community members, interventionists, and other stakeholders.

The Collective is a national training and technical assistance and capacity-building provider for emerging Community Based Public Safety (CBPS) initiatives, also known as Community Violence Intervention (CVI) agencies. Launched in early 2021, The Collective’s mission is to strengthen neighborhood leadership by investing in education, advocacy, and training of community-based public safety practitioners and organizations. The Collective is motivated to a single goal, which is to create a world in which lives are not lost to community violence.

According to the Collective, the purpose of the report is to highlight ways to assess existing resources and to build community infrastructure for intervention work.

Highlights from the Recommendations and Next Action Steps of the Landscape Analysis Report:

• The Collective identified the following existing intervention organizations to support because of their ability to intervene in ongoing violence. They are the Center for Structural Equity (CSE), Youth Advocate Program (YAP), and Group Violence Intervention (GVI).  The Collective recommends that grants should be made up to 75% of the organizations’ current budgets to allow for expansion.
• Develop an RFP to fund an external coordinator for intervention organizations/services.
• Develop an RFP to fund community-based intervention programming that is targeted solely at the data-identified, likely victims and perpetrators of gun violence and in the data-identified hot spots. In order to apply, organizations (those currently funded and those not currently funded would be able to apply) must be located in or provide services in strategic hotspots; have street level relationships; actively engage in intervention work. The RFP should require organizations to participate in City coordination, to collaborate with other community-based and municipal agencies, and to participate in City sponsored Training and Technical Assistance in order to receive funds. Funding should be over a three-year period for at least 5 organizations at no less than $100,000 each per year.
• Release of funds to Network Connect to train, deploy, and manage 20 Community Ambassadors/Interventionists.

• Develop and issue an RFP to create a 24/7 high-risk intervention and crisis response program that will partner with all local hospitals and provide “treat and release” services to people who are injured by violence, including assault victims.
• Expand the pool of organizations financially supported to do Community Violence Intervention (CVI) work and who have relationships with elected officials and policymakers.
• Fund The Wilmington Citizens Advisory Council to run a Public Safety Roundtable, a community-led (as opposed to law enforcement- or elected official-led) forum in which stakeholders and residents join as equal partners in creating safety. These forums are solutions-oriented and rooted in accountability and follow through.
• Equip community violence organizations with the technical and administrative training to be effective prior to disbursing funds and designating a coordinator to facilitate collaboration among stakeholders.
• Offer a mini-grant program for community-based organizations to apply for grants from $5,000-$10,000 to support them in providing meaningful prevention, intervention, and trauma-focused services.

Mayor Purzycki and Council President Congo said today they appreciate the work of the CBPS Collective and said the Administration and Council will work together to assess the recommendations offered in the report and to determine a path forward.

“The Landscape document is not just a report, but it’s a blueprint for reimagining public safety in our City,” said 7^th District Council Member Chris Johnson. “We must finally learn from our mistakes from the past, and forge a new, well-invested, community-led approach for healing our City.”

“We all realize there is no one answer to this epidemic, but we are grateful for the collaborative efforts to combat the gun violence in our City,” said 3^rd District Council Member Zanthia Oliver.

“Eight million dollars in ARPA set aside for Building Safer Communities is not nearly enough to address all the issues the City is facing,” said President Congo. “We need to focus on prevention at both the school and household level. In addition, funding is needed from the State, County, and Federal governments. We need to continue to engage the entire community for suggestions, and we have to help shape the minds and mentality of our children so that violence isn’t an immediate response.”