A look at the Feb. 12 Chat & Chew inside The Braid Mill. (Photo: Pryce Jamison)

“Coming to Pushing Progress Philly… changed my life,” said local resident Abdul Taylor at a recent community event.

After a lifetime of violent encounters that resulted in him being shot 12 times, he shared that Pushing Progress Philly (P3) helped shift his life’s trajectory for the better.

“They created a safe space,” Taylor shared. “I feel like that’s what a lot of men need; an opportunity to be able to speak and not be afraid to be vulnerable amongst each other.”

P3 is a Community Violence Intervention (CVI) program under Nicetown CDC that provides at-risk individuals with comprehensive job training and wraparound support. It’s just one of many CVI initiatives across the city that offer employment opportunities, educational programs, street cleaning strategies, and more in an effort to deter gun violence in Philly’s neighborhoods.

Taylor was one of many CVI advocates at the Public Safety Fireside: Chat and Chew, where organizers, elected officials, and community members filled The Braid Mill to discuss how CVI organizations can help build safer neighborhoods.

The event, organized in collaboration between F.A.S.T. Foundation and Councilmember Cindy Bass’ office, took place on Sunday, Feb. 15. With over 100 people in attendance, local and national guest speakers not only emphasized the importance of driving community change through CVI but also advocated for the resources needed to sustain the work.

Two CVI-centered panels were featured: (1) Organizing and Advocacy and (2) Reimagining Public Safety.

F.A.S.T. Foundation Founder and P3 Outreach Program Administrator Jaime Meekins spoke about the ways CVI practitioners have halted violence in ways others can’t. He cited “credible messengers down on the ground” as a prime example.

They have relationships with some of these people that’s committing some of these acts of violence… it’s only because of the community’s respect for them that they’re able to actually go in and interrupt cycles of violence.

Second panel speaker Majeedah Rashid of Nicetown CDC echoed similar sentiments. She said this trust has been an essential component of the CDC’s efforts to deter crime, homelessness, unemployment, and poverty through various services.

“If [people receiving services] don’t have important trust with our people… then you’re not going to be affected… So we make sure we prioritize that,” she said. 

Meekins focused heavily on “standardizing the work” and ensuring CVIs continue to work alongside policymakers and law enforcement so they are not overlooked in city and state budgets.

“The issue is that a lot of times, we believe that our policymakers understand the work that we do on the ground, but we don’t do a good job of articulating exactly what it is we do so that their policies match the work,” Meekins explained.

“What if we can get everybody together and standardize the work? No one is going to take you seriously until everybody’s working the same; There has to be some type of uniformity.”

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety in Newark, N.J., Lakeesha Eure, set the stage for the fight for CVI funding, locally and nationally.

Eure, who was also the first panel moderator, said, “We need our senators, we need our state representatives, we need people to go into those board rooms and back rooms that we can’t get in to be able to fight for us… We need to support them in a way that they feel like they can fight for us and them.”

CVI collaborator Councilwoman Bass, who aimed to deter gun violence this past year with her own initiative, expressed how “there’s more that could be [invested] in our young people.”

“We aren’t, in my opinion, putting out nearly enough,” Bass said, speaking on the citywide resource allocation. “What we’re putting in is a reflection [of us], and although we’ve done better in the last year, we still have a very long way to go.”

Philadelphia’s last major investment in CVIs was in June 2025, when it announced $24 million for 147 gun violence prevention organizations through its reimagined and redesigned Anti-Violence Community Partnership Grants program.

In Nov. 2025, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Pennsylvania’s FY 2025-26 budget, which includes $62 million in funding for violence intervention programs, about a 10% increase over the previous year. 

Between panels, 14th District Police Captain Stuart McCollum said the district is on track to have even fewer shootings than last year. Citywide, there was a significant decrease in homicides last year, the lowest number of homicides in the last 60 years.

Meekins connected the decrease in gun violence to the increase in CVI organizations, and said it’s vital that CVIs continue collaborating with law enforcement, saying they “co-produce” public safety.

Researcher Jocelyn Fontaine emphasized that her CVI impact research shows clear evidence that these strategies work as intended. “They’re saving lives; they’re putting folks on different pathways,” she said. 

203rd District State Rep. Anthony A. Bellmon talked about his legislative focus on CVI advocacy, reaffirming that “you can’t do it without funding.”

He mentioned the first-ever Black Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis’s cause to increase and preserve this funding towards violence prevention, alongside other Democratic senators and representatives in Harrisburg.

“What we [want to] do is fund [CVIs] through the appropriation process, meaning that we [all] got to go and advocate for it,” Bellmon said.

Appropriation bills are enacted annually through state hearings, where the House of Representatives examines and approves budget requests.

“Right now, you have 102 [Democratic] members in the (PA) House. We have 23 Democratic Senators. All of that funding we fight for in the state House has to go through that process in order for us to allocate the funds.”

Panel speaker Dujuan ‘Zoe’ Kennedy leads FORCE Detroit, which conducts community-led, data-driven strategies to prevent gun violence throughout Detroit. He’s also currently suing the Trump administration, alongside other organizations, seeking restoration of more than $820M in federal grants for violence prevention/community safety programs.

He is clear that decision-making for CVIs “has to come where it always comes from… the ground, the community, the individual,” and not just from the federal level.

Kennedy then raised a possible model for communicating the work in other cities, using his own experience. By hiring lobbyists and partnering with other CVI organizations in Detroit, they’ve set a precedent of visiting Michigan’s Capitol, Lansing, once a year to advocate for adequate funding.

“Everybody that does the paperwork can’t be in the field. Everybody that’s in the field can’t work that paper,“ he added. “We found champions in the Senate to present our [proposed] bills there.”

When speaking about how monumental it was to have people from different backgrounds connect over a common goal, Meekins said it shows “we’re deeply about the safety, dignity, and future of our city.”

“Public safety is not just a policy. It’s not just enforcement. It’s about people. It’s about prevention,” Meekins exclaimed.

“It’s about opportunity, that every young person in our neighborhoods believes that they have a future worth living for, and that every parent feels confident that their child can make a home safely.”

Founder of Sidewalk Therapy, Will Latif Little, was one of many CVI practitioners who found the event helpful, saying these are the types of events community members should attend to be “aware of what’s going on.”

“In 28 years of doing this work, this is one of the best events I’ve attended,” he said. “With some real, substantial information for how to collaborate, unify, and actually seek the funding.”

Pryce Jamison is Germantown Info Hub’s community engagement reporter and a Next City Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow. He covers Germantown and Philadelphia, with reporting that includes features, news, solution-focused and community-focused stories.