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‘Next Step’ hospital program aims to help survivors of violent injury rebuild
Summary
Kontrell Galloway and Larry Burgess described the Next Step hospital‑based violence intervention program that connects hospital responders with participants and provides about a year of wraparound community services; commissioners praised its prevention work and urged expansion into schools.
Kontrell Galloway, director of the Next Step program, told the Health Committee the program is a hospital‑based violence intervention and prevention effort that connects hospital responder teams to survivors of gun and other penetrating violence and follows participants for roughly a year with wraparound services.
“We call it the golden moment,” Galloway said of the window after hospitalization when staff can help people reconnect with goals they held before the injury. He described two teams: a hospital responder team that stabilizes trust and coordinates families with medical teams during acute care, and a community team that provides longer‑term case management, housing assistance, job training and mental‑health supports. Galloway described three sponsored community groups, including a 12‑week mental‑health group (the Harriet Initiative) and a school outreach component.
Larry Burgess, the school intervention supervisor, said the program currently operates in three schools and offers 1:1 support or group programs (typically 6–9 weeks) that teach resilience, grief and conflict resolution. Commissioners asked about scaling into middle schools given expected changes to juvenile accountability rules; Burgess and Galloway supported earlier intervention and described school and community expansion plans.
The Health Committee expressed strong support and invited Next Step staff to continue engagement with commissioners and site visits to observe the program.
