Who We Are
Transforming Communities: Advance Peace Confronts Gun Violence
Advance Peace is made up of people who know this work because we have lived it, studied it, and practiced it. We are credible messengers, educators, and experienced practitioners who bring both lived experience and professional expertise to one of the most pressing public safety challenges of our time: retaliatory urban gun violence.
We do not excuse this violence. We acknowledge it as wrong, destructive, and deeply harmful to the communities we serve. And we insist on this truth: it doesn’t have to happen. The persistence of gun violence in American cities is not inevitable—it reflects outdated systems and rigid approaches that too often enable the problem instead of solving it.
Stopping Violence, Transforming Lives
We serve those at the very center of gun violence because that is where the cycle continues, and because they are the ones most often left behind by existing responses. Until society and its structures remove the drivers of this violence from our streets, Advance Peace is committed to doing what we know works: consistent, intentional, relationship-driven engagement that stops shootings before they happen and opens new pathways for those most likely to be harmed or cause harm.