WASHINGTON — D.C. is ending 2023 with a 20-year-high in homicides. Groups like Guns Down Friday are working toward a low in 2024.
Last week, the Mayor's Office of Gun Violence Prevention awarded 28 non-profits with $300,000 in micro-grants for programs that enhance public safety.
One of those grants went to Guns Down Friday, which works to give kids daily support and opportunities to keep them on the right track.
The group's founder, Jawanna Hardy, said 2023 has been tough. She's lost several students to gun violence, some of the more than 270 homicides DC Police have reported this year.
That's a 36% increase from last year as of Friday.
"I had high hopes in the beginning of the year," Hardy said. "And I mean, just like everyone else, I'm not seeing a real change. So it's kind of frustrating."
She's frustrated but not deterred. Her focus is always on the families behind that "270" number.
"It's about the stories behind those numbers. It's about growing up and seeing friends, neighbors, and family members caught up in this cycle of violence in a world where trauma is almost expected, but never really acknowledged," Hardy said. "Imagine being a kid who witnesses something so scary. So life altering, and then having to go to school the next day, like nothing happened, you're expected to just carry on. But inside, you're falling apart."
She has big plans to help these kids in 2024.
With D.C.’s grant money, she plans to partner with Children’s National to hold more Stop the Bleed seminars for kids, where they’ll learn skills to save their friends life if they do get shot.
They’ll also receive tourniquet packets to keep on them in the event of that worst case scenario.
The goal is to not get to that point, so Hardy said she’s been traveling to different cities to learn from their best practices.
“I've been studying different models and traveling to different cities and states. Chicago to Atlanta, and... we want to bring the Guns Down Friday mobile trauma unit to Washington, D.C. …And we'll be providing mentorship, holistic care, yoga.”
Both Chicago and Atlanta have seen their homicide numbers drop this year.
She wants to model this mobile trauma unit to Erica Ford's Peace Mobile in New York.
When there's a shooting, she'll respond with the unit and help connect kids and their families with resources to help cope with that trauma.
She'll also use it to offer programming on de-escalation to try to prevent more shootings.
So it’s like a big bus that’ll go right to these shooting scenes, provide resources, and offer programming to teach de-escalation and hopefully prevent more shootings.
"With Guns Down Friday, when I first started, I always tell everyone, I didn't even realize that I was saving lives," Hardy said.
But now, she realizes she is, and she wants to save more in 2024.