Reconstruction of a new greenhouse for George Washington Carver High School

Temple University’s Department of Public Safety along with members of Temple’s men’s crew team, the Delta Mu chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and other student organizations, started reconstruction on a new greenhouse for students of George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, with hopes to complete the project in spring 2024.

Addressing Violence in the Community

The university has 11 primary violence reduction initiatives that can be broken into three core areas: programs from the Katz School of Medicine and Temple University Hospital that treat violence as a healthcare issue, community collaboration for campus and neighborhood safety, and programs that directly involve students in impactful violence reduction work. These Temple programs have made significant contributions in better understanding the causes of urban violence and reducing instances of violence in urban communities in the city of Philadelphia, and across the country

Center for Anti-Racism presents documentary on violence reduction efforts in Philadelphia

Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism will host a special screening of A Hope That Lights the Way, an impactful documentary produced in collaboration with the city of Philadelphia. The documentary shines a light on the dedicated community organizations and individuals striving to combat gun violence in the city.

The Community Gateway neighborhood resource center set to improve outcomes in North Philly

As part of its holistic approach to combatting gun violence, Temple University opened the Temple Community Gateway in fall 2023, which serves as a one-stop shop for connecting North Philadelphia community members to resources. “Social disconnection hinders economic mobility and therefore connections across income levels, across educational levels is important for greater economic mobility,” Harrison said. “So fundamental to an effective community is opportunity creation, and access.” With community engagement coordinators at Temple’s 17 different colleges and schools, the Gateway hopes to centralize all of the violence prevention resources for the coordinators to utilize if a community member asks.

Task Force on Violence Reduction Strategies

The task force brought together representatives from our campuses, including students, parents, faculty, staff, neighbors and area businesspersons, to review the university’s existing violence reduction efforts and consider other innovative violence reduction initiatives. It is one of many efforts designed to help elevate Temple’s anti-violence research and programs and to devise new solutions to help address Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic. Findings and recommendations are available here.

Youth Discussion on Civic Engagement and Public Safety 

By bringing together youth, educational institutions, and community partners to collaborate, share their experiences and ideas, and spend time listening and learning from one another, The GroupChat: A Safer Philadelphia is about being deliberate when it comes to including young voices and taking crucial steps toward creating a brighter and safer Philadelphia.

Temple senior Andrew Ankamah uses his passion for community service to reduce gun violence.

Temple University student Andrew Ankamah, Class of 2023, has paved the road to remarkable changes in his communities. On Feb. 9, he was announced as one of the McDonald’s 2023 Black and Positively Golden Change Leaders—a collective of 10 young Black leaders who inspire and enact change in their communities. Each recipient will receive a $20,000 grant towards their community missions and will be featured in a national advertising campaign.

Connecting the dots between gun violence and drug markets: Nicole Johnson and Caterina Roman

A new paper by doctoral candidate Nicole Johnson and Professor Caterina Roman, both in the College of Liberal Arts’ Criminal Justice Department, seeks to offer some of the missing context behind Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis. The study, titled “Community correlates of change: A mixed-effects assessment of shooting dynamics during COVID-19,” shows that from March 2020 through June 2021, gun violence went up on average by 21.6% each two-month period, albeit slowing down considerably in 2021. The areas that saw increasingly more gun violence had something in common: they had high drug market activity.

'A Hope That Lights the Way'

A documentary produced by the City of Philadelphia tells the stories of community leaders and organizations working to end Philadelphia's gun violence crisis. In collaboration with Temple University, the Mayor's Office of Black Male Engagement is surveying residents to understand their sense of safety in the city.

Stop and Frisk: Revisit or Resist

WHYY and the Temple University Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, created a podcast on stop and frisk that dives headlong into the conversation about how one particular policing method became a focal point for conversations around gun violence prevention in 2022. Stop and Frisk: Revisit or Resist explores how a more visible and utilized stop and frisk police tactic might curb gun violence and improve public safety. Over a two-plus month reporting period, WHYY News Gun Violence Prevention Reporter Sammy Caiola and Logan Center Director Yvonne Latty talked to community members, public officials, experts, legal professionals, citizen advocates, and the police. They compiled their work into a five-episode podcast that considers how Philadelphia might apply a renewed stop and frisk — an underreported topic that requires deeper contemplation.