Advancing Peace: a new book offers new solution to old problem of gun violence

In the summer of 2005, Richmond, Calif., was at a turning point.

- By SHANNON CHAFFERS Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

DeVone Boggan and Jason Corburn, authors of new book "Advancing Peace: Ending Urban Gun Violence Through the Redemptive Power of Love" (Photo courtesy of Nicholas DiSabatino)

The city's gun violence rates were among the highest in the country. The City Council was set to declare a state of emergency that would have brought increased surveillance and law enforcement presence into high-crime neighborhoods.

But other city leaders, including Mayor Irma Anderson and the City Manager Bill Lindsay, were wary of such a heavy-handed approach. They brought in a team of consultants to explore alternative responses. One of those consultants was DeVone Boggan, who spent a year studying the issue, speaking to Richmond residents, and observing potential strategies in other cities.

"One of [our] recommendations [was to] create this new institution inside city government called the Office of Neighborhood Safety, the first office of its kind in the country... And I was asked to run the office after it was ratified in July of 2007," Boggan recalled.

In this role, Boggan developed a new model of gun violence prevention that was independent of law enforcement and centered around providing intensive mentoring and material support to the small number of residents driving much of the city's gun conflict. In 2018, with the help of longtime collaborator and University of California Berkeley professor Jason Corburn, Boggan brought the strategy to other cities via his newly-created nonprofit, Advance Peace.

In their new book "Advancing Peace: Ending Urban Gun Violence Through the Power of Redemptive Love," Boggan and Corburn share how they developed and scaled this model, which has been credited with driving down gun violence in multiple cities while bringing healing and hope to affected communities.