Councilmember Amanda Farías presented a check of $25,000 this month to Jacobi’s Stand Up to Violence (SUV) program. The program is the first hospital-run Cure Violence-based program in the nation. At the press conference, SUV reported that they have seen a 59% decrease in the chance for violent re-injury in SUV patients and a 59% decrease in gunshot wound victims in the precinct areas that SUV serves.
Farías has committed funds to aid the program in fighting gun violence as the public health crisis that it is. The SUV program began in 2014 and exists within the 49th, 47th and 43rd precincts in the Bronx.
“This program is the success that it is because of how ingrained our SUV leaders are in the communities they service,” Farías said. “In communities like ours, in Soundview, Castle Hill, Clason Point and more, gun violence is something we hear about and deal with more than any of us would like to. But the work that SUV is doing makes a difference and I know that together we will continue to bring down the rates of gun violence in our communities, especially for our young people.”
Dr. Noe Romo, a pediatrician who serves as SUV’s medical director, said Jacobi Hospital is the only level one pediatric and adult trauma center in The Bronx.
“The patients that are seen by our team have a 59% decreased chance of coming back re-injured within 3 months of being discharged and are two times more likely to come back for their outpatient scheduled follow ups,” Romo said. “That is critical as in terms of how we are able to reduce morbidity and mortality in the patients that we have seen.”
According to Kwame Thompson, outreach supervisor for SUV, the program’s job is to reduce gun violence in the community by mediations and working with the highest risk individuals that are most likely to shoot someone or be shot. As a result, the program has close to 15 outreach workers, three supervisors and hospital responders to go forward with this work to reduce gun violence.
“We are seeing these participants become more active in reaching out to our credible messengers instead of picking up a gun, now they are picking up a phone asking for help,” Thompson said.
Something that always stuck out to John Doyle, associate director of public relations at Jacobi Medical Center, was a medical study that was done that said if you were brought into the ER with an intentionally inflicted traumatic injury there is a 1 in 5 chance that you will be dead within 5 years.
“It is the work that these guys do everyday in the streets,” Doyle added. “They are credible messengers who can show people a different side of life and show people there is a need to put down the guns and the knives and everything else.”
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