CeaseFirePA Launches statewide tour to highlight programs, advocate for continued state support
(Pennsylvania) — A new report from CeaseFirePA Education Fund demonstrates a reduction in gun homicides due to historic investment in violence prevention programs and the gun violence prevention group warned without continued investment, shootings may rise again. The report goes on to share stories of successful violence intervention and prevention in communities across the state.
The report details the success in gun violence reduction since Pennsylvania began meaningful investment in community violence prevention programs, including:
- The City of York had its fewest homicides in 2024 than any year since 2015
- Allentown had its lowest rate of homicides since 1989
- Montgomery County homicides dropped by 35 percent from 2023
- Statewide, firearm deaths excluding suicides fell 38 percent
- Between 2021 and 2023, homicide clearance rates in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania increased—22 and 13 percent—while the national rate only increased by 5 percent.
“These are lifesaving investments. The data proves it and what’s more – our communities feel it. You can truly feel communities become safer. As dread, anxiety, and retaliation recede, a neighborhood is able to thrive in new ways; families remain whole, young people grow up and graduate, relationships with law enforcement improve, positive outcomes become possible,” said Adam Garber, Executive Director of CeaseFirePA. “Dollars of investment to the state directly correlate to lives now lived in the absence of gun violence. Continuing, and increasing, that investment is a moral imperative.”
The report recommends an investment of $8 per resident or $100 million a year. This significant investment will save the state up to $500 million a year by decreasing healthcare, criminal justice system and economic costs, while boosting tourism and business.
With budget season in full swing, CeaseFirePA Education Fund is launching a statewide tour of violence interrupting organizations to show how investments from Pittsburgh to Reading to Allentown are interrupting violence–and the risk if resources dry up.
The new report from CeaseFirePA Education Fund shares some of those stories as well, including when violence interrupters heard rivals were about to shoot up a baby shower at a Chester pizza parlor. Within hours they connected with the individuals planning the attack. And just like that, a mass shooting was averted.
Events currently scheduled to highlight successful programs are listed below with more to be added. Stay tuned.
March 27th in Lancaster @ Bench Mark This event is being hosted by Will Kiefer, the Executive Director of Bench Mark. There will be a panel discussion featuring Bench Mark CVI practitioners and people who have benefited from the program.
May 22nd in Bucks County @ St. Mary Medical Center This will be a panel discussion — details coming soon!
May 28th in Pittsburgh @ Center for VictimsThis event is being hosted by the Center for Victims and it will feature a panel discussion of 6 local CVI groups in the region.
You can read the full report here.
CeaseFirePA Education Fund is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to ensuring not another life is lost to gun violence. We build awareness about the impacts of gun violence in the Commonwealth by lifting up the voices of survivors and analyzing data on the drivers of violence in the Commonwealth.
