In Lansing, Michigan, a collaborative effort between community activists and law enforcement has led to a dramatic reduction in shootings. Yet, the very organizations credited with this success are now struggling to secure consistent funding, raising concerns about the sustainability of peace.
A Mother's Mission Born from Tragedy
Sheri Pruitt’s life changed forever in August 2014 when her 17-year-old son, Richard, was shot and later died in a Lansing hospital. While grappling with grief, she faced additional hardships: her gas and electricity were shut off, and her son’s life insurance had lapsed, forcing the family to raise funds for his funeral. “All of these things were happening while I’m trying to process that I lost my youngest son,” Pruitt told The Trace. “I realized there was a need and there were a lot of families going through the same thing.”
This experience inspired Pruitt to create an organization to support grieving families, connecting them with essential resources like medication payments and help with bills during the initial mourning period. In 2020, as gun violence spiked, she began working with Village Lansing, a community group addressing violence and neighborhood issues, and later joined the Lansing Empowerment Network (LEN), a separate violence-prevention initiative. Pruitt now coordinates LEN’s critical response program, which provides immediate support to victims and their families after shootings.
Record Declines in Shootings
Lansing has witnessed a significant drop in gun violence, with only three fatal shootings so far this year compared to 16 in the first eight months of 2021. This decline mirrors a national trend. From 2022, when Advance Peace launched in Lansing, to 2025, overall shootings decreased by 38 percent, with fatal shootings down 46 percent and nonfatal shootings down 22 percent. Local activists attribute these numbers, at least in part, to the work of violence intervention groups.
“We can’t say that Advance Peace is causal in nature, but based on the conversations we’re having, based on the work we’re doing in the community, we know we’re contributing to the reduction,” said Paul Elam, a criminologist at the Michigan Public Health Institute who helped bring Advance Peace to the city.
Funding Gaps Threaten Progress
Despite these successes, the financial foundation of these programs is fragile. Millions of dollars in federal grants have expired without replacement, forcing Advance Peace to reduce its staff from over 20 to just five. This has limited the group’s ability to maintain consistent contact with individuals most at risk of involvement in gun violence. “We’ve had to reduce the number of individuals we can actually engage, even though our intelligence might tell us there are more individuals involved in gun violence in our city,” Elam explained.
Dan Boggan, strategy manager for Advance Peace, emphasized the need for sustained financial support: “We get huge support from our city government, but we need to see it financially as well; there’s no doubt about that.” The city awarded Advance Peace $325,000 this summer, up from $300,000 the previous year, but this is a fraction of what is needed to maintain full operations.
Impact of Staff Cuts
The reduction in staff has had tangible consequences. Former fellows have reached out to Elam, asking where the community violence intervention (CVI) workers have gone. Laid-off workers have reported that the young people they previously helped are struggling. In one instance, a former fellow expressed concern about violating parole if he couldn’t find legal means to obtain food. “There’s certain people that we were in constant contact with, but when you’re spread thin, you can’t touch everybody like you need to touch them on a regular basis,” Boggan said.
City Support and Budget Constraints
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor acknowledges the integral role of CVI groups. “We see [CVI] as integral,” he told The Trace. “The cops are there to make sure that they’re able to figure out what happened. CVI groups are able to get in and make sure there’s no retaliation.” However, he noted that funding is tight, with the city allocating $425,000 to community violence intervention, a sum he described as difficult to increase without cutting other services.
LEN has been approved for $100,000 in operational funding this year, but as of August 17, the organization was still awaiting the money. Mike Lynn, LEN’s CEO, highlighted the disparity: “That’s just a fraction of the amount of money that’s in the general fund for public safety,” he said, noting the city’s general fund exceeds $100 million. “Just one of those millions could move mountains in the community violence intervention space.”
A Call to Double Down
Community workers argue that the current lull in shootings is not a time to relax but to strengthen their efforts. “This ain’t the time to hold up, and that’s usually what people think. It’s like ‘OK, we’re good. I can go back to normal life,’” Lynn said. “This is when we gotta really increase everything we’re doing. We have to shore ourselves up. We know that at any point in time, one person can make a dumb decision and shoot five people, and we’re right back in the same scenario.”
Pruitt is using this quieter period to reconnect with families still grieving and to prepare for a potential resurgence in violence. “It gives me more time to make sure that everyone is getting what they need,” she said. “We definitely prepare ourselves during the down times.”
