D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a slew of expanded violence prevention efforts on Thursday, seeking to reduce gun violence as the city records its highest homicide count in 16 years. 

The Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE), a D.C. agency that works across the city’s departments to prevent violence in communities, will be expanding its violence interrupter program into three new neighborhoods: Congress Park in Ward 8, Shaw in Ward 2, and Edgewood in Ward 5. The program aims to prevent and reduce violence by sending violence interrupters into communities, where they build relationships, engage with residents at risk of being involved in gun or violent crime, and mediate disputes before they escalate to violence. ONSE will also be sending more interrupters to the city’s already-prioritized neighborhoods, and creating a “floating” team that will work in areas not currently included in the ONSE’s initiative. All told, with the expansion, more than 80 individuals (an increase of roughly 50 people) will be working in 25 neighborhoods across D.C. Funding for the ramped-up intervention efforts comes from a $9.6 million investment of federal dollars to expand non-police and community-based violence prevention efforts in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget. 

“We know for sure that responding isn’t enough, preventing gun violence is our focus,” Bowser said Thursday. “Preventing gun violence is our focus, because, ultimately, we know a focus on prevention will save lives.”

As of Dec. 9, 211 people have died by homicide in the city — an 11% increase from 2020, and the highest number of homicides recorded since 2003. Homicides have increased in the city every year since 2017, and the rise has disproportionately impacted Black communities east of the Anacostia River. According to ONSE director Del McFadden, the decision to expand violence interruption efforts into Congress Park, Shaw, and Edgewood was based on “crime data, peace negotiation, and community insight.”

“The level of gun violence in Congress Park is unacceptable, and it impacts quality of life of every community member,” McFadden said Thursday. “The Edgewood community plays an important role in maintaining and advancing our current peacemaking efforts in Ward 5, and the Shaw community will be critically important to the peacemaking efforts we are embarking upon with our existing Northwest communities.”

McFadden said it can be difficult to numerically track ONSE’s success in averting violent crime, but reported that in 2020, ONSE-targeted neighborhoods saw a decrease in gun crimes and gun homicides, and that the trend has been sustained so far through 2021. This data will be posted publicly and updated on a quarterly basis, according to McFadden.

“I know for sure that if it wasn’t for the work of the violence interrupters, that that the number that we’re looking at presently will be much higher than it is right now,” McFadden said.

Bowser’s announcement comes shortly after D.C ‘s attorney general Karl Racine, who in the past has criticized Bowser’s violence prevention efforts, expanded his office’s Cure The Streets program, which employs similar violence interruption strategies. Starting in 2022, the program will operate in four additional wards — 1, 4, 5, and 6. Bowser’s violence prevention initiative, Building Blocks D.C., which aims to reduce gun violence in targeted areas of the city, excluded Ward 4.

When asked during a press conference Thursday if the ONSE expansion was made in collaboration with Racine’s office, Bowser said Linda Harllee Harper, the city’s new Director of Gun Violence Prevention, and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Chris Geldart “coordinated” with the attorney general. 

Bowser and Harper also announced an expansion of the city’s Pathways Program, which connects young people at risk of becoming involved in violence with training and job opportunities. The city will use $4.5 million in federal funds to expand the program’s reach to 130 residents. Bowser will also be making $1.1 million in grant money available to community and nonprofit organizations later this month, building off the $750,000 in community grants made available in June. These grant applications will be awarded on Friday, Dec. 17.