You know what’s exhausting? Uncovering buried history that contains solutions to current problems. Often, the bureaucrats tasked with solving these issues don’t succeed, while those closest to the problem do.

I learned about the House of Umoja in 2020 when I began working on community-led solutions to rampant interpersonal violence. Founded in 1968, the organization housed and reparented gang members, held its inaugural gang summit in 1972, and drove gang-related homicides down to zero by 1976. Yet, Mayor Frank Rizzo took credit for this success following the ’72 summit.

It’s frustrating to watch history repeat itself, seeing effective solutions buried and having to divert time and energy from urgent work to prevent this. On June 17, 2024, The Inquirer reported a striking decline in gun violence but failed to recognize the contributions of community groups.

“Some key stakeholders, including Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and District Attorney Larry Krasner, said in recent interviews that even they aren’t certain what’s driving the decrease … They said some of the answers could remain difficult to pinpoint for some time,” wrote a trio of reporters.

This is how history gets rewritten. Just days after this article, DA Krasner acknowledged the contributions of PHILLY TRUCE and other organizations in reducing violence. Despite this, the efforts of these groups were overlooked in the initial reporting.

Between August 22 and November 6, 2023, PHILLY TRUCE led Operation Hug The Block, nighttime peace patrol vigils that ran for 77 consecutive nights on blocks known for high violence. The results were indeed striking: a 64 percent decrease in shootings; a 62 percent decrease in fatal shootings; a 100 percent reduction of shooting victims under the age of 18; a 65 percent decrease in victims aged 18-30; and an 83 percent decrease in shooting victims during the hours of 10pm to 4am.

On one hand, we have appointed and elected officials recognizing, even rewarding, the efforts of community groups. On the other hand, we have city and elected officials baffled as to how this happened.

But you know what’s even more exhausting than all of this? Providing municipal-level service that gets results as a community-based organization overlooked for City funding while spearheading the most epic community-led violence reduction campaign during the same period as this mysterious striking decline.

On Monday, November 20, 2023, the Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for Criminal Justice & Public Safety in the City of Philadelphia notified the PHILLY TRUCE FOUNDATION that we would not receive a Community Expansion Grant to expand our footprint, pay volunteers a livable wage, and potentially transition them to full-fledged employees. We submitted a proposal for a Community Expansion Grant (CEG), meeting the May 15 deadline and participating in prerequisite interviews with the City. An email dated July 28, 2023, provided hope that the process was moving forward. “We look to decide on the 2023-2024 CEG grantees by the week of Monday, August 14, 2023,” the message read. “If this timeline changes, we will send out an update via email,” it concluded.

Between August 14 and November 20, a 14-week period, there was no communication — presumably regarding any grant application. Within that span, the 11-week Operation Hug The Block campaign occurred. A few phone calls made on behalf of PHILLY TRUCE suggest that the decision not to fund the organization was made some time ago. This information was ascertainable by anyone with enough clout to inquire. Even as we risked life and limb patrolling Philadelphia’s most violence-impacted blocks, we were left in the dark.

Two weeks after completing Operation Hug The Block, an email from the City arrived. “We are sorry to inform you that your application for the Community Expansion Grant has not been accepted as one of our awardees for this cohort,” it read. “There were many extremely qualified applicants this cycle, and this result should not be seen as a reflection of the work you do,” it went on.

PHILLY TRUCE organized a total of 680 volunteers to patrol the 77 blocks most impacted by gun violence in recent history. We did it with the support of 77 Philadelphia police officers, the Sheriff, and a handful of deputies during the run-up to the election of Cherelle Parker.

If we were able to do this at exactly the same time the decision was being made whether or not to fund us, one has to wonder if the City is placing a premium on effective grant writing at the expense of effective initiatives.

The rejection email goes on to mention “the sheer number of fantastic organizations working to prevent and reduce violence in Philadelphia. While we are unable to provide direct feedback on why your application was not selected at this time,” the email concluded, “we encourage you to continue your hard work to make our city a better place.”

On one hand, we have appointed and elected officials recognizing, even rewarding, the efforts of community groups. On the other hand, we have city and elected officials baffled as to how this happened. Our city officials need to recognize and support effective community-led initiatives. As we continue our work, we call on policymakers to prioritize real solutions over bureaucratic procedures that may or may not include selective amnesia about who’s responsible for what. Because that is beyond exhausting. It’s plain old tired.

Mazzie Casher is the co-founder and Executive Director of PHILLY TRUCE, whose mission is to equip African American males and the communities where they live with tools that increase their chances to achieve sustainable manhood.

The Citizen welcomes guest commentary from community members who represent that it is their own work and their own opinion based on true facts that they know firsthand.

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