RELEASE: Gun Violence Prevention Advocates Call On Connecticut Legislature To Continue Funding Project Longevity Program That Has Effectively Reduced Gun Violence
July 26, 2017 — As the Connecticut state budget deadline fast approaches, Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, and its partner organization the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, released a letter calling on Connecticut legislature to reauthorize funding for a local gun violence intervention program that has proven to reduce gun violence. The program, Project Longevity, has gained national attention for its effective strategies to reduce gun violence, and has become a national model of state-level support for evidence-based violence reduction strategies. The program, which was first launched in 2012, has helped reduce rates of gun violence by over 50 percent in urban areas of Connecticut.
“The gun violence intervention and prevention strategies supported by Project Longevity are an important part of Connecticut’s overall violence prevention portfolio,” said Mike McLively, Urban Gun Violence Initiative Director, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Americans for Responsible Solutions. “By investing directly in evidence-based violence intervention programming, Connecticut has become a national leader and Project Longevity provides a model for other states. Now is certainly not the time to pull back on these strategies and I urge legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle to restore this critical funding source.”
Read the full letter here.
About The Success Of Project Longevity
Since it was first launched in 2012, Project Longevity has had an impressive impact on violent crime in Connecticut.
- In the three Project Longevity cities, gun-related homicides have fallen more than 50% – from a combined 69 in 2011 to 32 in 2016.
- In these cities, group-related shootings fell by more than 60% between 2011 and 2016.
- In October 2015, a group of researchers from Yale University published a formal evaluation of the impact of the first 18 months of Project Longevity in New Haven, which showed a 21% decrease in total shootings per month, and an impressive 53% decrease in gang or group-related shootings per month that researchers found to be “directly attributable to” Project Longevity.
Speak with an Expert: For additional information on Project Longevity, or to be connected to a gun violence prevention expert, contact Sean Simons at sean@responsiblesolutions.org