The Trace

• ‘Up the Block’: A New Resource Hub for Philadelphians Affected by Gun Violence March 5, 2021
  True story: In Philadelphia, we have a section of the city referred to as “the Badlands.” Google Maps even plasters the term over the parts of North Philadelphia associated with the nickname. It’s a reference to the area’s crime rate, and to some, a warning to stay away. But those of us who call the […]
• The Push to Pay Violence Interrupters a Living Wage March 2, 2021
  Tina Padilla grew up in a part of Northeast Los Angeles with a heavy gang presence. Intent on breaking the “generational curse,” as she calls it, and having just completed a prison stint, in 2013 she began volunteering as a violence interrupter. She was deployed to mediate street conflicts before they escalated to gunfire. Eventually, […]
• The Violence Interrupter in the Mayor’s Office February 26, 2021
  Dante Barksdale was a Safe Streets violence interrupter. Like the other “credible messengers” whom the program relies on, the 46-year-old Barksdale knew the streets of Baltimore. He was raised in Lafayette Courts in East Baltimore, in the shadow of Johns Hopkins University. As a young man, he scratched out a living as a corner boy, […]