County and city outline coordinated violence-reduction plan and June summit

County staff and city partners told commissioners they are moving from diagnosis to an implementation roadmap for a joint violence‑reduction effort. The work is structured in three phases: shared learning and strategy identification (underway), planning/implementation (summit this summer), and design of a sustainable operational management structure to oversee coordinated efforts.

"We don't necessarily need more programs, but we need a more coordinated targeted approach and a management structure that will ensure that the individuals that need the services are able to get those services," Director Humphrey said, summarizing the Vera Institute’s finding that Durham is resource rich but lacks centralized execution and accountability.

Presenters described a range of evidence-based options under consideration — focused deterrence/Group Violence Intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy and job-subsidy programs, place-based hot‑spot work and expanded street outreach with credible messengers — and noted University of Pennsylvania is conducting a local problem analysis to identify priorities and target populations. Staff also reported more than a dozen community listening sessions and several youth-engagement events intended to surface lived experience for strategy design.

Commissioners pressed for early‑intervention strategies tied to schools, clearer measures of accountability (MOUs/management roles) and inclusion of judicial partners where appropriate. Staff said the summit will gather the broad stakeholder group and that operational management recommendations will follow.

Next steps: a June violence‑reduction summit will share problem‑analysis results and community input and provide strategy recommendations and an operational roadmap for the city‑county partnership.