Charlotte, Mecklenburg outline public-health approach to violence; council asks staff for 45 days of data analysis

City and county public-health and community partners presented the city council on Feb. 10 about efforts to treat violence as a public-health crisis, including the county’s Office of Violence Prevention, Atrium Health’s hospital-based Project BOOST and community-based Alternatives to Violence (ATV) sites. After discussion, council asked the city manager’s office, CMPD and the IT department to produce a focused data analysis and actionable insights within 45 days.

Raynard Washington, Mecklenburg County public-health director, described the county’s Office of Violence Prevention, which was started after community input and seeks to reduce violence through primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Washington said the Way Forward plan sets a five-year target to reduce gun-related violence by 10 percent and organizes activity across five “building blocks” including community collaboration, hospital-based intervention and evidence-based interruption programs.

Atrium Health representatives updated council on Project BOOST (Building Optimal Outcomes for Survivors of Trauma). Program manager Britney Brown said Project BOOST began as a 2021 pilot funded with $250,000 from the city that was matched by Atrium Health, creating $500,000 in startup funds. Brown said the program subsequently secured federal funding of about $963,000 to support expansion through 2028 and has extended services into 2025 as it hires additional staff. “Project BOOST” works bedside with patients injured by violence to assess social needs, connect survivors to resources (housing, employment, mental-health services) and reduce the likelihood of re-injury.

Morgan Maxwell, Project BOOST’s evaluation scientist, reported program outcomes for Jan. 2022–Dec. 2024: staff encountered roughly 270 patients and enrolled 131; enrolled participants were mostly male (about 95 percent), 85 percent Black/African American, 91 percent injured by firearms, and skewed toward ages 16–18. Maxwell said Project BOOST’s preliminary evaluation shows less than 12 percent of enrolled participants returned with the same injury (recidivism) and 83 percent of participants had no subsequent justice-system interaction in the measured follow-up windows. Maxwell added that the program screens and addresses social drivers of health—housing, transportation and safety—and that more than 90 percent of those with identified SDOH needs had been connected to services at 90-day follow up.

Rakeshla Stewart, deputy director of the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Services, summarized the city-funded Alternatives to Violence (ATV) program, which follows Cure Violence (CVG) methods and hires credible messengers with lived experience to interrupt conflicts, support high-risk individuals and change harmful local norms. ATV began in 2021 with one site in the Beatties Ford area and expanded in 2023 to West Boulevard and Nation’s Ford/Arrowood, operated by Youth Advocate Program (YAP) and the Urban League of Central Carolinas. Stewart said ATV sites reported roughly 76 community activities and outreach to about 3,500 residents so far, and gave examples including midnight basketball and midday canvassing in schools and apartment complexes to de-escalate conflicts.

Council members from across the chamber praised the collaborations but said they also felt urgency in light of continuing high-profile shootings. Councilmember Malcolm Graham pointed to a recent daylight shooting in Uptown and urged faster results. Several council members asked for more granular data linking repeat offenders to overall arrest and victimization counts; Councilmember Bakari Sellers said the city needs data to test whether a relatively small cohort of repeat offenders is responsible for an outsized share of crimes.

City staff recommended a short, targeted next step: spend 45 days producing data analysis and operational insights—using CMPD data, IT tools and the city-manager’s office—to show where policies or reallocated resources would likely have the most impact. Sean Heath, who organized the multi-month series for the manager’s office, framed the 45-day workplan as a staff-level analysis and recommended workload prioritization rather than a pause in existing programs. Council broadly supported the request for focused analysis and asked city and county staff to return with findings and policy options.

Speakers described community investments beyond interruption and hospital-based care, including youth mental-health access, gun-lock distribution, the Peacekeepers Academy to train community groups, and a youth advisory council that feeds recommendations into planning. Presenters urged that law-enforcement tactics, court resources, behavioral health, housing and economic-opportunity work remain integrated parts of any durable strategy.

Council members asked staff to return with specific, actionable recommendations—policy and budget options where applicable—after the 45-day analysis period.