NewsLocal News

Actions

City leaders announce expanded services to help communities heal from trauma

police.jpg
Posted at 6:48 PM, Aug 12, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-12 18:50:11-04

BALTIMORE — Baltimore City leaders announced a new way to help victims and people who’ve been impacted by gun violence.

Making victim services a top priority and using a trauma informed approach to do it.

Healing communities is the main focus behind the victim services expansion.

Mayor Brandon Scott and his Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement said they hope this new approach to expanding victim services can be a model for other communities when it comes to better serving people while responding to all victims of violence.

“This hybrid approach will make sure that we’re community-based, that we are trauma informed, but also that we are working in innovative ways to make sure that people get the services that they need no matter how they were victimized,” Mayor Brandon Scott said.

Shantay Jackson, the Director of MONSE, said previously victim services were housed inside Baltimore Police Department with only a certain group of victims who received support.

“So MONSE and its predecessor agencies supported victims of human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, but it wasn’t until Mayor Scott took office there was an explicit focus on making sure that we address survivors of gun violence,” Jackson said.

Jackson said expanding victim services to support all gunshot victims and the surrounding people impacted is now the new focus.

In addition to creating an eco-system in collaboration with the Baltimore Police Department, the State’s Attorney’s Office and other community driven organizations.

“As the mother of a son who was shot in 2018 walking home from the bus stop after work there was no single city agency that I can go to that focus specifically on gunshot survivors to make sure they got the support that they needed,” Jackson said.

This new expansion changes that, focusing on implementing mental health services and others to help people heal physically and mentally.

“What we’re already seeing, as the mayor activated a response around the shooting that just happened on Linnard Avenue, a coordinated neighborhood stabilization response that is not only obviously looking to support the family in a coordinated way between MONSE, BPD, and partners, but making sure we’re supporting the neighborhood at large,” Jackson said.

That shooting claimed the life of 15-year-old Nykayla Strawder at the hands of a 9-year-old.

“MONSE has already taken receipts of calls for resources around mental health support for young folks who live in that neighborhood and who may have heard or even witnessed the gunshots,” Jackson said.

As trauma continues to infiltrate the Baltimore community, city leaders are working to make sure they’re prepared to help everyone heal in the aftermath.

“This is a significantly and great sound investment of taxpayer dollars to make sure our community or residents are getting the healing that they need, the support that they need, so that we can become a safer city,” Scott said.