WASHINGTON — Close to two years in, Peace for DC has trained more than 100 violence interrupters to more effectively serve their community -- and take care of themselves in the process.
The nonprofit launched the first DC Peace Academy in the summer of 2022, determined to better equip these "peacemakers" with the tools to help curb the violence plaguing D.C. neighborhoods.
They have gradually expanded to include more services to help these credible messengers deal with this taxing work.
“We have the conversation around healing healers... [There are] some folks that are out there doing doing some really, really deep and important work, but the work is also traumatizing," Peace for DC Executive Director Marcus Ellis said. "And so going deeper for us meant adding a level of therapeutic services to our program."
Services that recent graduates said have transformed their own outlooks.
“Just consistent love, networking, growth. I learned so much about myself, so that I can be able to go out in the community and just, you know, explain my story," Tiffani Evans said.
Her 8-year-old son PJ was shot and killed by a stray bullet while he was playing video games in a relative's apartment in Prince George's County in August 2021.
A group outside of the apartment building ended up firing shots -- with one of them hitting PJ.
"When I was in that present moment, I could have been angry. In that moment. I could have wanted to go and return on a favor of killing somebody else because they killed my baby," Evans said. "But I turned my pain into purpose in that moment."
Evans has been advocating to end gun violence in her community, has recently released a book she wrote about her journey, and graduated from the academy last year.
Prince Hamn joined and graduated from the program last year to add to his toolbox for his own non-profit -- M.A.D. (Making a Difference).
“What I'm really trying to do is help break generational curses. That starts with the masses," Hamn said. "So that's where CBT could come and help, right? ...A lot of us are stuck in our emotions where we can't get to our rational thinking. So, we help them with their coping skills, helping with their emotional intelligence, help them with other resilience."
That's where the training on cognitive behavioral theory and the Think, Feel, Do cycle comes in.
“It helps people rewire those negative thoughts, so they won't make those bad decisions," Evans said. "And I tell people all the time, that five seconds of making a bad decision could change your whole entire life. So sometimes you got to sit in that moment, stop, think, feel what you're feeling, and make the best decision in that situation."
She and Hamn agree that one of their best decisions was joining the Peace Academy.
“It just strengthened me as far as in my mind more to even help a lot of my community members, because we already faced with a lot of inequalities and social barriers already right?" Hamn said. "To learn how to help out with better coping skills…to understand the things that they do, to see why they do it, see what frustrated them, help them understand more what they triggers are to make a better society.”
Ellis estimates that once this sixth cohort graduates, that’ll mean they have trained about 150 violence interrupters since starting the program.
He said they hope to continue expanding offerings moving forward.
"We know that violence interrupters suffer with not having things like health care, and things of that nature, stuff that is somewhat normal to a lot of us and in our jobs and our places of employment. And so Peace for DC sees an opportunity through our academy to expand the services that we're offering," he said.
Ellis said they are also working to start a civic coalition with local businesses to try to jointly address the problem of gun violence throughout the city.
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