2023 Annual Report

2023 Summary

Here is a brief overview of our goals and accomplishments this year.
Some of these points are discussed more thoroughly below.

 

Expanding Impact

2023 was about cultivating relationships with community partners. Halt Violence is about saving lives and changing minds. We mediate in the hopes of squashing beef among black teens, young adults and adults. Halt Violence steers youth, young adults, and adults away from violence through our Moral Therapy Initiative. Columbus had a disturbing, unacceptable and horrific 2023 with youth and female gun violence.

Specifically, in 2023, Halt Violence obtained a grant from The Columbus Foundation ($70,000) for racial equity, $100,000 from Echoing Green for racial equity and $141,223.22 from the Ohio Department of Public safety to reduce gun violence, $6,602.12 from Rhema Family for gun violence reduction and $36,400 donation from Jeff Dickson. Halt Violence is proud to have Franklin County Children Services as a funder for the Moral Therapy Initiative.

Halt Violence performed 57 conflict mediations in 2023. Thanks to our team, we were able to squash 46 beefs that stopped murders, shootings and fights among black youth, black teens and black adults. However, we had 11 that we couldn't prevent. With our help, disputes were ceased among individuals, squads, gangs and even families! Our Street Mentors, through tireless efforts, are still pursuing the beefs that are still on going. These disputes are not simply forgotten.

​Halt Violence enrolled 175 participants. 70% males, 30% females & 19% of the clients were under 18 years old seeking mentor-ship or trauma counseling. 5% of our clients were white, 3% other and 92% black.

  • 37% of our clients received trauma counseling

  • 38% of our clients received mentorship

  • 22% of our clients gained employment

Partnerships

Halt Violence has positioned itself for success by creating and establishing strong working partnerships. Here are some of our partners for 2023. The Columbus Metropolitan (Parsons, Linden, Driving Park, MLK and Barnett branches, CPO (Community Properties of Ohio), Buckeye Ranch and The Public Defender’s Office.

 

Donations, Grant Awards & Fundraising

Halt Violence raised $442,241.12 for 2023. We did every service in person because we are front line workers. We are grateful for the impact that we had in 2023 in the third deadliest year with gun violence.
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Violence Interventions and Meditations
It is an all-to-harsh reality that in Columbus, Ohio, there are countless teens and young adults for whom violence has become a part of life. Columbus has a serious need for violence intervention services and for programming that works with at-risk violent youth who are/were gang members. HALT VIOLENCE employs a fairly simple strategy to combat violence. First, we place great emphasis on building trust through responsiveness, compassion, and confidentiality.

At HALT VIOLENCE, we understand that trust is the keystone to creating strong social bonds. We have built significant trust in many of the communities in and around Columbus. One of the key elements in preserving this trust is our confidentiality policy. We do not share personally identifiable information with any other organizations. For our participants, our confidentiality policy is an important buffer. It facilitates open dialogue and makes our job easier.

Second, we will employ our most promising clients as Street Mentors—HALT VIOLENCE’s field workers whose primary function is to respond to calls, conduct meditations, and otherwise respond to needs within the community and build networks within the neighborhoods served.

Below is a list of the zip codes where violence interventions and mediation that HALT VIOLENCE conducted in 2023:

30% of the disputes were on the north side, 78% successful, 15% on the south side, 71% successful, 26% on the west side, 83% successful and 29% on the east side, 61% successful.
The beefs ranged from fights, shootings, murders and arguments.

Conclusion

If you have any further questions or concerns please contact a representative of our organization by telephone at (614) 302-1640 Cell or by email at info@haltviolence.org.