Deion Sumpter, middle, the city's director of Group Violence Intervention, hugs the mothers he works with following a news conference about the initiative's effectiveness. - Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
PHILADELPHIA — A city-run initiative that aims to provide services to those at risk of shooting someone or being shot has shown encouraging results in its attempts to help address the city’s gun violence, Philadelphia officials said Tuesday. An evaluation conducted by a University of Pennsylvania researcher said the approach, known as Group Violence Intervention, or GVI, helped reduce gun violence among targeted groups of young people by as much as 50% during a nearly 30-month period ending last spring. Similarly promising reductions could be seen in neighborhoods where the initiative took pla...
