Gun Violence Awareness Month: A Conversation with the Women Leading the Work

Kelli D. Sneed, Executive Director of the DC Office of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement (ONSE)

Gabrielle Stevens, Director of Grants Management & Community-Based Programs with the DC Office of the Attorney General.

Washington, DC currently has two Community Violence Intervention (CVI) initiatives run by city agencies. Cure the Streets through the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has been operating since 2018 and the Violence Intervention initiative operated by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement or ONSE (in operation since 2017).  

Currently, two Black women leaders oversee the city’s CVI efforts- Kwelli D Sneed, Executive Director of DC’s Office for Neighborhood Safety & Engagement (ONSE) and Gabrielle Stevens, Director, Grants Management and Community-Based Programs with the DC Office of the Attorney General (OAG).  

Below, we learn more about these two leaders and the city-led (but community-based) efforts to curb violence. 

Talk a little bit about the work that you lead here in DC. 

KDS: As a native Washingtonian, my commitment to the well-being of the District is deeply personal. Growing up here, I’ve seen both the challenges our communities face and the tremendous resilience within them. That perspective fuels my devotion to making a meaningful impact through my work. 

Throughout my career across various roles in DC government, I’ve had the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of how our government systems operate— and more importantly, how to navigate those systems to ensure residents are truly served. 

As the Director of ONSE I get to continue to do this as I lead our agency toward our mission of reducing gun-related violence in every ward across the District 

GS: In my role as Director, one of my chief responsibilities is managing OAG’s Violence Reduction Unit and flagship community violence interruption program, Cure the Streets (CTS). The CTS program is built on the belief, supported by research, that empowering communities to intervene with those at highest risk of gun violence and changing the social norms surrounding it can have significant, lasting impacts. 

Over the last seven years, we have seen transformation in the program staff, participants, and communities that we serve. The CTS program has been successful in reducing gun violence in key neighborhoods across the District. More information about the program and our impact can be found on our website.  

When you think about your partners in the community that work on the frontlines to interrupt and intervene in violence- what do you want residents of DC to know about them. 

KDS: When I think about our partners in the community who are on the frontlines interrupting and intervening in violence, I want DC residents to know that these are not just workers—they are neighbors, mentors, healers, and protectors. Many of them have lived the very experiences they now work every day to prevent. They bring credibility, compassion, and a deep commitment to the people and communities they serve. 

These individuals put their lives on the line—day and night—responding to shootings, mediating conflicts, supporting families in crisis, and helping people find a different path. They do this work quietly, often without recognition, but the impact is profound. Their presence helps prevent retaliation, ease community tensions, and connect people to critical resources like housing, employment, and trauma support. 

What people often miss about community violence intervention (CVI) in DC is that it’s not just about responding to violence—it’s about preventing it through trust, relationships, and consistency. CVI isn’t a quick fix. It’s a long-term investment in people, communities, and healing. When paired with housing, jobs, and mental health support. 

GS: I have met some of the most dedicated, passionate, and inspiring partners in doing this work. Our frontline staff work tirelessly to address gun violence. The program employs credible individuals who have trusted relationships and influence within their neighborhoods. CTS staff on the frontlines are trained to mediate conflicts, provide resources and support to high-risk participants, and engage with the community to build coalitions and develop strategies to reduce gun violence. 

The community-based organizations (CBOs) that we work with also play a huge role in the success of the program. They understand that community violence interruption saves lives and addresses the root causes of gun violence. Our CBOs employ more than 90 CTS frontline staff and work in partnership with OAG to ensure the program is implemented with fidelity to the model. 

There would be no CTS without our partners, and a large part of the program’s success is attributed to the CBOs and frontline staff. 

Women in CVI are a powerful force both here in DC and across the country- talk a bit about how you've tapped into that network of women leaders both locally and nationally (particularly in a field where men have at the forefront historically) 

KDS: Women have always been at the forefront of community building, saving, and sustaining. I come from women who have always stepped up to serve and I am thankful to work alongside the women across ONSE, our grantees, and CVI to bring about a world without gun violence. I was fortunate to participate in the Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago where I connected with so many women doing this work on the national level. I look forward to ONSE continuing to be a convener for partners across backgrounds. 

GS: I appreciate this question and recognize that women have always been pioneers as it relates to community-led programs and initiatives. I am grateful to have found support in many women through my journey of leading CTS over the last three years. Women have played a huge role in my success, and it helps to have government, non-profit, and federal partners that not only support the work that I do but also support me. In turn, I have worked to create a safe space for other women who are leading CVI work, including my OAG team and CTS staff. 

What is one thing that you think people need to know about CVI in DC that is often overlooked or misunderstood? 

KDS: The data is clear: community-based violence intervention efforts work—we see this nationally and right here in DC. Violence Intervention isn’t a quick fix but a long- term investment to resocialize individuals and communities— into choosing alternative pathways to violence. 

GS: Community violence interruption initiatives are a crucial component of a comprehensive approach to gun violence in the District. CVI is designed to address localized conflicts and require sustained commitment and time to make long-lasting change. I feel like people look to CVI to be an immediate solution to long-standing conflicts and then fault the efforts and programs as not working when there is continued conflict. People don’t see all the work that happens behind the scenes between program staff and community. Often people are only using one metric to measure CVI work, when there are many ways to measure the success of CVI. 

DC has made major strides in reducing violence over the last year. How do you envision these declines continuing? 

KDS: In 2024 we saw a substantial reduction in gun violence by thirty-seven (37%) and will continue to work hand-in hand with public and private sectors to build on this. With the support of the mayor, we hope to be able to continue to innovate, scale, and further institutionalize these efforts. 

GS: With continued support, I envision violence continuing to reduce through programs like CTS. CTS staff have worked to build deep connections in the neighborhoods they serve, act as role models to program participants, and change community norms about violence. 

Finally- what do you see as philanthropy's role in CVI here in DC? 

KDS: It takes all of us in the fight—gun violence is public health crisis and like any other crisis every sector must be hands in. CVI is a shared responsibility. Philanthropy can be a catalyst for change, working in partnership with communities and government to build a safer DC. 

GS: Philanthropy can use its convening and funding power to support CVI in the District. CVI is under attack, and it will take more than government to continue to advocate and support this work. Philanthropy should also work to shift the narrative, locally and nationally, about the need to support CVI work. 

Healing from Within: Why DC Must Bolster Community-Led Solutions to Gun Violence

Across Washington, DC, residents face extraordinary challenges. Yet DC natives hold their own solutions. Local leaders who understand both the pain and potential for healing make daily impact. 

Gun violence is merely a symptom of a larger epidemic. Saving lives requires robust funding of community-based gun violence prevention and Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs. Two remarkable organizations—the TraRon Center and the National Association for Returning Citizens (NAARC)—demonstrate the transformative power of community-led solutions. 

Ryane Nickens, Founder of TraRon Center at an event for Gun Violence Awareness Month.

The Prevention Imperative: Starting Where Hope Lives 

Ryane Nickens was 15 when her sister Tracy was killed by their next-door neighbor. At 17, she lost her brother Ronnie to a friend's gun. These devastating losses left her clinically depressed and struggling to trust. 

Ryane left DC for college in North Carolina, seeking space to heal. During her senior year, when another close friend fell to gun violence, she felt called to return home. She enrolled in Howard University's School of Divinity and began working with the Washington Interfaith Network on gun violence prevention outreach in Wards 7 & 8. 

"Meeting with community members -- including mothers of victims to gun violence -- was a powerful experience for me," Ryane shares. "I saw in them the same pain and lived experience that I had gone through." 

Ryane realized what policymakers were overlooking: the need to create healing spaces for community members impacted by gun violence, especially in Wards 7 & 8. 

A 2020 DC Health Matters Collaborative study found that nearly 1 in 4 residents in Ward 8 struggle with poor mental health—a tenuous situation where lack of mental health access overlaps with communities marked by gun violence. 

"Our community doesn't have a safe space to process and cope with trauma," Ryane shares, recalling how she would ride the bus for nearly an hour to reach the nearest therapist as a teenager. "Our community needs somewhere that they can process their emotions; their trauma and heal in place." 

Building Sacred Spaces for Healing 

In 2017, Ryane started the TraRon Center—named after her siblings—as a safe space where children ages 4-14 and their families can acknowledge pain, process trauma, and learn therapeutic skills to navigate complex emotions. 

"I want our children to achieve their hopes and dreams. We need to start by helping them process the trauma and pain that is holding them down," Ryane shares. 

Each child takes an Adverse Childhood Experiences Study or ACES—a nationally recognized trauma assessment. Almost everyone registers scores indicating severe or significant trauma. 

"We want these children to thrive," Ryane shares. "Their joy and quality of life is our long-term goal, as an organization." 

Beyond therapeutic treatment, the TraRon Center provides educational opportunities including museum trips, embassy cultural center visits, and team-building summer camps. "We teach them that they are global citizens," Ryane explains, expanding their sense of possibility. 

Ryane's program succeeds through authenticity. She understands violence not as abstract policy but as lived experience, channeling personal trauma into preventive healing. This creates trust outside organizations cannot establish. "Once you have their attention and they know they're in a truly safe space, you can start to unravel the causes of their trauma an begin exposing them to not just trauma informed treatments but open their minds to the beauty around them and inside of them," Ryane observes. 

Since 2018, the TraRon Center has engaged over 150 children and achieved significant improvements in participants' ACES scores as youth move from surviving to thriving. These youth have gone on to become volunteers and advocates for the TraRon Center – extending the cycle of healing for those that need it. 

"We want our kids headed to college, to the workforce, working towards something greater and making generational changes in community and family," Nickens says. 

Intervention That Works 

Eric Weaver, Founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens (NAARC).

Eric Weaver's journey exemplifies the transformative power of second chances. While incarcerated, Eric earned his GED and degree, led self-help groups, and tutored peers, establishing support networks to prepare people for post-release life. 

"When I got out, a lot of people were asking why I wasn't doing the same things I was doing inside," Weaver recalls. How could he continue the transformative mentoring and education work outside of the prison walls? 

The answer came through Peaceaholics, one of DC's earliest community violence intervention programs started in 2004. Eric began teaching GED classes and running programs. His credibility was unquestioned—when he arrived to take program participants to class, "every time, they got in the car. They needed someone who understood." 

However, the initiative's impact was short-lived. Following a mayoral administration change in 2010, funding and public support for Peaceaholics quickly dried up. The results were devastating: "Everybody that was in the GED class, every last one of them is dead or locked up. That's what happened when the program stopped." 

Building Credible Community Intervention 

This tragedy crystallized Weaver's understanding: consistency matters in violence intervention work. In 2010, he founded the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens (NAARC). In 2018, when the DC Office of the Attorney General introduced Cure the Streets—a Community Violence Intervention model proven in metropolitan cities—many in the community resisted due it’s connection to cities outside of DC. Where others saw invasion, Weaver saw opportunity. NAARC was among the first to pilot the program. 

For many violence intervention workers—eighty percent of whom are returning citizens—this represents their first real post-incarceration opportunity. "Where other career opportunities look at their background as a burden, here it makes them credible in the neighborhood," Weaver notes. Cure the Streets intervention experts receive signature neon yellow uniforms and training to stop violence before it happens. 

"This work saves them and helps them get on their feet, but this job also is a public safety initiative," Weaver explains. "Had these people not been able to get this job, they could have been a victim or a predator of violence." 

Weaver has watched workers graduate to college and move into DC government positions. The organization includes professional development because "we don't want violence intervention workers to make a career out of it—we work with them to find the next step in life." 

Beyond Crisis: Expanding Possibilities 

Weaver's genius lies in understanding that intervention means more than stopping fights or retaliation—it means expanding possibilities. Beyond intervention, he has organized etiquette classes, purchased suits for youth, and provided new experiences and opportunities for those that have not been afforded to them. 

"It expands a person's range; it expands their dreams," Weaver reflects. "When you give them the opportunity to explore other opportunities and see that anything is possible, they start trying to do more." 

Yet like the TraRon Center, NAARC faces the fear of funding instability. DC has a pattern: violence prevention and intervention funding follows political cycles rather than community needs. Programs start with fanfare, build relationships and trust, show results—then vanish when administrations change. 

"Our work is 100% based on trust," Weaver explains. "Our community trusts that no matter what happens, we'll do whatever it takes to show up for them. We need our elected officials to do the same." 

A Call to Action 

DC stands at a crossroads. We can continue the expensive cycle of responding to violence after it occurs—through emergency rooms, courts, and prisons—or we can invest in community-based solutions that address root causes and build lasting peace. 

As Nickens puts it: "We know that our community faces obstacles beyond their control. We want to love them through it, while giving them the tools to plow through the obstacles and reach their dreams -- no matter how impossible they may seem." 

Funding community-based gun violence prevention and intervention isn't just about public safety—it's about justice, dignity, and recognizing that every person deserves the chance to thrive rather than merely survive. 

The question isn't whether we can afford to fund these programs. The question is whether we can afford not to. 

Gun Violence Awareness Month: Elevating Community-Centered Approaches to Violence

Friends and organizers with T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, a DC-based gun violence prevention organization on Wear Orange Day

June is Gun Violence Awareness Month and at the Greater Washington Community Foundation, we aim to provide both local and national context to the region around our efforts-and those of our partners-to promote community safety. This is particularly timely as funding for Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs both nationally (and here in DC) faces uncertainty. 

The Origins of Gun Violence Awareness Month & Wear Orange Day  

The House of Representatives first designated June as Gun Violence Awareness Month in 2021. But the movement began years earlier as a tribute to Hadiya Pendleton - a high school student from Chicago who was shot and killed on a playground in 2013, just one week after marching in President Obama’s inauguration.  

On the first Friday in June – what would have been her birthday - Hadiya’s friends chose to celebrate her life by wearing her favorite color, orange. The gesture was quickly adopted by advocates across the country, as a way remember and honor victims of gun violence.  

By 2015, communities across America began observing Wear Orange Day/Gun Violence Awareness Day on the first Friday of June – to honor those - like Hadiya – who lost their lives and to take a stand against gun violence. 

The Role of a Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Ecosystem 

Reducing gun violence is complicated and requires multifaceted approaches and work across sectors. But some of the most promising solutions lie in the communities that are most impacted. CVI Ecosystems link a variety of approaches toward gun violence reduction to holistically address the issue. These ecosystems are most impactful when community, hospital, and school-based interventions collaborate, are rooted in data and are connected to city resources and supports. 

In most cities, a very small percentage of people - often less than 1% - drive most of the gun violence. CVI leans into this population through intensive engagement and interventions led by relatable teams of frontline workers (sometimes called credible messengers or violence interrupters). 

To learn more about these strategies and CVI more broadly, check out our webinar from February titled Building Safer Communities: A Donor's Guide to Community Violence Intervention Strategies. 

DC’s Violence Prevention Network - The Promise & Potential 

Members of Cure the Streets, a CVI initiative driven by the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens (NAARC) with Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I - At-Large)

Here in DC, we’re fortunate to have a fully committed network of people working to prevent and interrupt violence. Through city-led efforts via ONSE and OAG and their partnership with those on the ground and in hospitals, a group of individuals with diverse expertise are invested in this work. Over the last year, we partnered with the Public Welfare Foundation to convene the DC Community Safety Collaborative - a group of philanthropic, corporate, business, and community leaders that have been working to identify key priorities for local attention and investment. We know that through continued collaboration and cross-sector investment, DC has the ability to further drive down violence and build capacity in public health approaches.  

In addition to our philanthropic and private sector partners- several key city and nonprofit representatives sit at a table with us in developing our strategy. Below, those partners and the work they lead to reduce and prevent violence locally (making up elements of our local CVI Ecosystem) are highlighted: 

• Office of the Attorney General of DC’s Cure the Streets operates in discrete high violence neighborhoods using a data-driven, public-health approach to gun violence by treating it as a disease that can be interrupted, treated, and stopped from spreading. 

• NAARC (National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens) is committed to supporting formerly incarcerated residents of DC. While NAARC leads a variety of programs, their work to lead several Cure the Streets sites helps to interrupt local violence through trusted, credible violence interruption teams. 

• Peace for DC is committed to addressing gun violence holistically. The DC Peace Academy provides advanced, hands-on classes for the professional and personal development of DC’s violence intervention professionals.  

• Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) leads a Violence Intervention initiative that uses a three-pronged approach that incorporates a public health perspective. The approach focuses on all persons affected by violent acts, including victims, perpetrators, and their support systems/networks 

• Project CHANGE is the District’s Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) and provides services to individuals and their families who have experienced a life-threatening intentional injury. 

While negative headlines can sometimes overshadow progress, we're committed to highlighting the positive, life-saving work happening in our local gun violence prevention and intervention space. 

Join Us in Making a Difference 

Throughout Gun Violence Awareness Month, we'll be sharing more insights on this critical issue. Together, we can build safer communities through collaborative, community-centered approaches to preventing violence.