USA Today, June 2025
In Detroit’s Warrendale and Cody Rouge neighborhoods, where gun violence can plague the streets in the hot summer months, a half-dozen violence prevention workers from FORCE Detroit have been checking in on young people at risk, visiting their families and keeping tabs on social media so they can mediate conflicts before they turn deadly.
Like similar programs across the country, their work has proven incredibly effective: Just a year after FORCE Detroit launched as a nonprofit in 2023, shootings and homicides dropped 52% in its service area, according to city officials. The Justice Department awarded the program a $2 million grant in September − money meant to finance its work through 2027.
