Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Paul Elam to the Michigan Business Beat.

Paul is currently MPHI’s Advance Peace spokesperson/ local operator and, Chief Strategy Officer

To hear Paul share about Advance Peace for the Lansing, Michigan, area, click play on the SoundCloud podcast shared below:

During their conversation Jeffrey looks to find out:

So,... yesterday (9/22/22), at the Schmidt Community Center, in Lansing -- Ingham County Health Department Health Officer Linda Vail joined you and Lansing Mayor Andy Schor.

Tell me about the Advance Peace initiative. What is the next phase?

What is the goal of the initiative?

Explain cyclical and retaliatory gun violence, how is this a public health issue?

Anything else you’d like to share?

The Advance Peace Lansing initiative is moving into its next phase. 

Funder Ingham County authorized an agreement to grant the county and City of Lansing financial support to MPHI as Advance Peace’s local operator.

Advance Peace is a model for evidence-based intervention to end cyclical and retaliatory gun violence. It aims to reduce this violence by 40% in the region in three years.

The Lansing initiative’s next phase starts this month and includes: 

• Introducing Neighborhood Change Agents into the region’s neighborhoods most impacted by cyclical and retaliatory gun violence. The NCAs develop and facilitate important relationships and actions supporting the reduction of firearm assaults and associated injury and death.

• Identifying Advance Peace’s first local cohort of 15 to 20 Peacemaker Fellows, individuals who will participate in a personalized 18-month fellowship designed to provide supports, services, and opportunities to those most likely to be victims of cyclical and retaliatory gun violence.

MBN Join the team of the Advance Peace Lansing initiative for a press conference. We will share that video in upcoming days.

On hand for the occasion were:  The Advance Peace Lansing local operator and funders including:

• Linda Vail, Health Officer, Ingham County Health Department (she/her/hers). 

• Paul Elam, Chief Strategy Officer, MPHI (he/him/his).

• Andy Schor, Mayor, City of Lansing (he/him/his).

It was held Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, at the Schmidt Community Center

Community Room 5825 Wise Road, Lansing

Here's further information about Advance Peace:

What is Advance Peace?

• Advance Peace is a model for evidence-based intervention to end cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in American urban neighborhoods.
• The Advance Peace initiative marks the first community-based strides toward a 40% reduction in cyclical and retaliatory gun violence over the next three years.

Who do I contact with Advance Peace Lansing questions?

• MPHI is the local operator. MPHI’s Advance Peace spokesperson is Paul Elam, Chief Strategy Officer (he/him/his). Elam can be reached for interview by contacting Kelly Coyle, Director of Corporate Communications (she/her/hers), at 517-324-6042 or kcoyle@mphi.org.
• Ingham County is the primary funder and administrator. Ingham County’s Advance Peace spokesperson is Linda Vail, Ingham County Health Officer (she/her/hers). Vail can be reached by contacting Victoria Coykendall, health communications specialist (she/her/hers), at (517) 331-7012 or vcoykendall@ingham.org.
• More information on Advance Peace Lansing can also be found at https://advancepeacelansingingham.org/. 

Why bring the Advance Peace model to Lansing and Ingham County?

• Advance Peace works. It is an evidence-based, statistically proven model which reduces violence including:
• Reduced firearm assaults by 50% and reduced firearm-related homicides by 50% over a four-year period through its Peacemaker Fellowship.
• In Sacramento, California.
• RESULT: Advance Peace outreach workers in Sacramento, Stockton and Richmond mitigated a pandemic-related increase in firearm homicides.
• In Richmond, California.
• RESULT: 55% decrease in firearm homicides and hospitalizations between 2010 and 2016.
• In 2020, the Center for American Progress recognized Richmond’s Advance Peace program as a model for jurisdictions looking for alternatives to the criminal justice system.
• In Stockton, California.
• Advancing Peace, Against the Odds, The Appeal.
• RESULT: 21% reduction in gun homicides and assaults from 2018-20 compared to averages in the years before the program’s launch.
• Advance Peace initiatives are also in:
• Fresno, California.
• Woodland, California.
• Fort Worth, Texas.
• Rochester, New York.
• Orlando, Florida.

• New York City. 

What is the goal of the Advance Peace Lansing initiative?

• A 40% reduction in cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in the City of Lansing and Ingham County over the next three years.

How will Advance Peace Lansing achieve its goal? 

• By investing in the development, health and wellbeing of those at the center of the crisis.
• “Advance Peace’s signature Peacemaker Fellowship is an intentionally designed developmental and healing-centered personal leadership and liberation strategy for those committed to solving conflict with a firearm. Controversially, it also addresses income inequality — it is unquestionably unique in the community violence intervention space.” — DeVone Boggan, founder of Advance Peace. 
• Advance Peace Lansing is guided by its initiative team:

• Ingham County is an initiative coordinator and funder.
• MPHI, a Michigan-based and nationally engaged public health institute, serves as the local operator, the organization responsible for managing and implementing the Advance Peace initiative. MPHI’s program staff and Neighborhood Change Agents lead the Peacemaker Fellowship.
• Advance Peace, the nonprofit that developed the Advance Peace model, receives grant support for training and technical assistance. The nonprofit’s team works closely with program staff to monitor implementation of training and programming to ensure accuracy of the initiative.
• City of Lansing is a funding partner for the initiative, contributing $540,000.
• AP staff will engage additional community partners to support the initiative.

Is law enforcement involved in the program? 

• The Advance Peace model’s evidence-based practice demonstrates the importance of trusted peers, including limiting the role of law enforcement in mediating and resolving disputes.
• As a result, the aspects of the program in which law enforcement is engaged are limited, but very important:
• Tracking and providing historic and real-time data to assess the impact on cyclical and retaliatory gun violence.
• Providing data to determine who would benefit from participating in the fellowship.
• When deemed appropriate by the AP team, developing and improving law enforcement relationships within the community. 

Why are MPHI and the Ingham County Health Department involved?

• Cyclical and retaliatory gun violence is a public health issue.
• The Ingham County Health Department observed a 400% increase in gun violence.
• The violent crime rate in Lansing hovers between 995 and 1,200 per 100,000 people on an annual basis according to FBI statistics, with recent years setting new records for homicides and shootings. 
• A 2020 Ingham County community feedback survey identified gun violence as a consistent health issue of the greater Lansing area.
• AP is a direct investment into addressing the public health crisis of racism.
• There is a financial impact on health systems when people are shot and the public health system subsidizes the cost of care.
• Advance Peace reduces government and health care system costs associated with gun violence by tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, with each gun homicide costing upwards of $2.4 million according to the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform.

How much will this cost, and how is it being funded? 

• This summer, Ingham County authorized an agreement to name MPHI the local operator and award $203,975 to support  the Advance Peace initiative through February 2023. 
• The Advance Peace planning team has established a three-year budget totaling $1,954,240 for a Peacemaker Fellowship®, and it has secured commitments for funding totaling nearly $1.6 million as of September 2022. Full funding details are below.

ADVANCE PEACE LANSING INITIATIVE FUNDING CONTRIBUTIONS:

*USDOJ funds awarded specifically to the Ingham County administered Advance Peace Lansing initiative. Additional USDOJ Project Safe Neighborhoods funds awarded to MPHI will also support efforts toward reduction of cyclical and retaliatory gun violence. 

What is the timeline for Advance Peace?

• August 2022:
• Ingham County finalizes contract with MPHI to serve as local operator (COMPLETE).
• MPHI designates local Advance Peace Program Manager (COMPLETE).
• MPHI hires three Neighborhood Change Agents to work directly within neighborhoods (COMPLETE).
• September 2022:
• Three Advance Peace Neighborhood Change Agents are deployed within neighborhoods identified as most in need of support (COMPLETE).
• Local Advance Peace office established in South Lansing (COMPLETE).
• Neighborhood Change Agents facilitate and document conflict mediations and violence interruptions within impacted neighborhoods (IN PROCESS).
• Advance Peace Lansing staff and Neighborhood Change Agents work to identify and build trusting relationships with potential Peacemaker Fellows (IN PROCESS).
• October 2022:
• MPHI begins to establish an Advance Peace Advisory Council of local organizations and community members engaged with youth and work on reducing gun violence.
• November 2022:
• Advance Peace staff and Neighborhood Change Agents select Peacemaker Fellows.
• First local Peacemaker Fellows begin their 18-month journey grounded in an evidence-based practice designed to save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of the community.
• Advance Peace staff facilitate the region’s first Advance Peace Peacemaker Fellow Orientation.
• MPHI seeks additional funding to grow a specialized staff team such as a program field coordinator, Peacekeeper, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/Life Skills Training and Development Specialist.
• Advance Peace staff begin mapping out 2023 program timelines and logistics.

ADVANCE PEACE LANGUAGE GUIDANCE:

When writing about or discussing Advance Peace, please follow the following language guidance:

• Advance Peace is a model.
• The Advance Peace model is an evidence-based intervention to end cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in American urban neighborhoods.
• Advance Peace Lansing is an initiative.
• Advance Peace Lansing can be abbreviated to “Advance Peace” when speaking in context of the local initiative.
• Currently, Advance Peace Lansing operates in the neighborhoods most impacted by cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in Ingham County and the City of Lansing.
• Advance Peace Lansing’s website is https://advancepeacelansingingham.org/. 
• Advance Peace is NOT a program.
• Ingham County and the City of Lansing are Advance Peace funders.
• MPHI is the local operator for the Advance Peace initiative serving Ingham County and the City of Lansing.
• Advance Peace’s signature program — the Peacemaker Fellowship — is treated as a proper noun and thus capitalized.
• Advance Peace capitalizes Fellowship and Fellows when used to reference the Peacemaker Fellowship.
• AP Style does not.

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