$300K grant will help fight gun violence in Davenport

Davenport has been “extraordinarily impacted” by gun violence for years, according to Davenport Police Chief Jeffery Bladel. The goal now is to reduce that violence in Davenport and across the entire region – and a new $300,000 grant created through the Quad Cities Community Foundation could make that goal a reality. That three-year grant was […]

Davenport has been “extraordinarily impacted” by gun violence for years, according to Davenport Police Chief Jeffery Bladel. The goal now is to reduce that violence in Davenport and across the entire region – and a new $300,000 grant created through the Quad Cities Community Foundation could make that goal a reality. That three-year grant was unveiled during a news conference Monday morning, Jan. 9, at the Quad Cities Community Foundation office in Bettendorf. The funding will help advance the Group Violence Intervention (GVI),  a strategy aimed at reducing violent crime that was adopted last year by the City of Davenport.  GVI is a “focused deterrence” approach that focuses on victims and offenders to build trust and provide services and resources that could help save them, according to information provided by the Community Foundation.

“This can have a huge impact on our community. … We want to get the message out that violence is not tolerated. But we are here to help,” Chief Bladel added. The GVI brings together law enforcement, social services and community members to reach people at the highest risk of committing violent crimes. The key message GVI wants to voice is – “We want to see you safe, alive and out of prison,” according to Dwayne Hodges, a pastor, community organizer and volunteer, instrumental in helping roll out GVI. “If you want to see change, you have to be part of it,” Mr. Hodges said at the news conference introducing the $300,000 grant. He added that one of GVI’s main goals now is to get more people involved and make it a passion for the community. “We have to have passion in what we do,” he said. The grant money will be used in three ways: 

• It will allow Family Resources to dedicate a staff member to help with GVI work.
• It will fund a stipend for community members who have volunteered their time and talents to the GVI.
• The grant will fund research and evaluation by St. Ambrose University, Davenport, which will measure the GVI’s effectiveness and lay the groundwork for additional funding for the program.

The police chief said that GVI is having a positive impact already on the city. He said preliminary statistics from last year show that in Davenport, homicides were down about 56% and shootings were down about 18%. He added that he is hopeful that GVI will “change the cycle of violence” in the community by focusing on intervention and prevention efforts. According to information presented by the Community Foundation, in Davenport, 0.19% of the population is involved in roughly 55% of the city’s gun violence – meaning that carefully calibrated outreach can go a long way toward addressing the problem.  “Complex community challenges like this can only be solved through collaboration,” Sue Hafkemeyer, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, said in a statement. “We’re excited to see an innovative tool for promoting racial equity and ensuring our community is safe for everybody who calls it home. By supporting this effort now, we believe we can transform it into the wider regional strategy needed, activating the entire community together.” In its first phase, GVI teams have reached out to almost every person known to have actively engaged in violence in Davenport in the past three years. Of the 75 individuals reached last year, only three went on to be involved in gun violence afterward.  “Sometimes you can look at the headlines and feel like this is a problem we’re never going to wrap our arms around, but that’s not true,” said Sarah Ott, the City of Davenport’s chief strategy officer, in a news release. “We can, and we are.” During Monday’s news conference, Davenport Mayor Mike Matson pointed out that the GVI is a long-term strategy that is meant to have an impact for years. “This is going to take a community investment,” he added. “Even before GVI, Family Resources was asking how we can move further upstream to address these issues earlier,” said Nicole Cisne Durbin, Family Resources’ president and CEO. “We want to be proactive in figuring out how to help our community access the things they need so that they don’t have to resort to violence.” Officials at the Monday event said they want GVI to expand beyond Davenport. “We need this strategy to be region-wide,” said Ms. Cisne Durbin, noting that Family Resources already has a presence in Illinois. Now that the model is built and growing in Davenport, it will be easier to recreate across the river, for example in Rock Island, she added. “This is a different way of helping people,” Mr. Hodges said in a statement. “We are giving people a hand up to help make changes in their lives, and sometimes they just need to hear somebody say. “I care about you.’ That’s what GVI is doing.”