— then the members of the community feel valued. Anger or frustration can fester when we are surrounded by neglected, underfunded living environments.
Such investments in communities are also cost effective. In Stockton, Calif., for every $1 spent on the Operation Peacemaker Fellowship,. Similarly, in the vacant building/lot remediation study, every dollar spent yielded a return of up to $79 for abandoned building remediation and up to $333 for vacant lot remediation.
For a long time, the solution to community violence has been to increase force or criminalization. However, a welcomed and intentional shift is evident in the City of Philadelphia’s, which increases funding for public education, violence prevention efforts, and neighborhood revitalization. Still, the City of Philadelphia budgets over twice as much to police and prisons compared to Parks and Recreation, education, and public health combined. This is not projected to change.
This shift in investment would save money, reduce violence and crime, increase opportunities, and ultimately improve the overall well-being of the residents of our city, particularly those most affected by gun violence. Naomi Fields, Cody Goldsmith, Paul Okoyeh, and Arthur Thomas are graduates of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.