Temple University Launches Philadelphia CeaseFire

“The problem of gun violence in cities across the country, including Philadelphia, has become a public health epidemic. The key to ending such an epidemic is to adopt a public health approach that engages communities and focuses on behavioral change,” Marla Davis Bellamy, director of Philadelphia CeaseFire (the most recent CeaseFire model replication) stated in this column.

As the article states, the Philadelphia CeaseFire is based at the Temple University medical school’s Center for Bioethics, Urban Health and Policy, seeks to reduce the number of homicides and shootings in North Philadelphia. Funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency it is currently amassing data to determine the program’s effectiveness in one of the most violently impacted community’s.

 CeaseFire’s track-record for effectiveness in reducing shootings and killings was validated earlier this month in Baltimore by a three year Johns Hopkins University study of four historically violent neighborhoods—McElderry Park, Elwood Park, Madison-Eastend, Cherry Hill—showing a statistically significant decline in either homicides or nonfatal shootings or both in each of the communities.