Great Lakes Wire

On June 12, representatives of MPHI’s Advance Peace Initiative, along with other Advance Peace members from across the country, met with White House officials from the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The purpose of this meeting was to highlight the importance of healing-centered community violence intervention programs like Advance Peace.

Charles Richardson, Strategy Manager for Advance Peace, and Marlon Beard, Field Coordinator, attended the meeting as representatives of Advance Peace Lansing. The meeting focused on discussing the Advance Peace model, successes and challenges faced, and the current state of funding.

The White House meeting allowed Advance Peace to assert the need for increased mental health support in impacted communities, which the organization seeks to do through community outreach and continued mentorship efforts. The Initiative emphasizes that gun violence is a public health crisis and has sought to combat the crisis with their Peacemaker Fellowship®. Advance Peace’s Peacemaker Fellowship® operates through engagement and mentorship of those at the center of gun violence.

“Advance Peace local leaders are working tirelessly to foster community-wide transformations in cities most impacted by firearm violence. Through their implementation and management of the Peacemaker Fellowship® they are helping to build life-affirming infrastructure that will help to deliver sustained reductions in gun violence. This is an extraordinary and welcomed opportunity to continue to help communities impacted by gun violence thrive in peace,” said Advance Peace CEO and Founder DeVone Boggan.

The meeting resulted in a commitment from White House officials to continue working to fund these efforts and recognition that prevention efforts like Advance Peace are instrumental in resolving conflicts involving firearms.

For more information on the Advance Peace Initiative, visit: Advance Peace Lansing/Ingham – Working to end Gun Violence and Heal Communities (advancepeacelansingingham.org)

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