A Better Philadelphia, Inc.





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		A Better Philadelphia, Inc. is a new non-profit organization (2005) born directly from the headlines of the Philadelphia Inquirer and state and local statistics showing the recent spate of gun violence, youth homicide, sexual and physical assaults in schools, and a continued rise in intimate partner violence. It is also an outgrowth of the award winning project called, "Picture This," the domestic violence training and camera project recently implemented with great success in the Philadelphia Police Department. This three-year initiative was designed to improve interviewing skills, increase knowledge about intimate partner violence, change attitudes, and increase the number of photographs of injuries sustained in an assault and quality of evidence overall. Long term outcomes are increased conviction rates for those who commit domestic violence. An unexpected benefit of the "Picture This" project was the excitement created by providing a training program with an interdisciplinary team to a multidisciplinary audience. Many audience members commented on the importance of hearing other perspectives and rich discussions often took place during and after training sessions. Service agencies, police, health care professionals, religious leaders, immigration experts, representatives from culturally diverse communities, schools, need to be at the table when forming solutions to address violence. Violence prevention and intervention advocates and service providers also must learn to work with each other since there are commonalities amongst all forms of violence (e.g., intimate partner, dating, gun, and youth violence) regardless of the setting (i.e., community, school, and home). Throughout the "Picture This" project, hopelessness and despair were evident, and not just from the survivors of violence. Many police detectives as well as service agencies in the Philadelphia community are expressing a common concern that they "don't seem to be getting anywhere." The Philadelphia region has made great strides towards building a critical mass to address these problems and yet there is a sense of frustration at the lack of progress towards curbing the violence. In essence, A Better Philadelphia, Inc. is a new approach to harness that critical mass to bring hope, revive people's spirits, and inspire the determination to create "a new normal" - a Philadelphia region that is safe, healthy, and happy. A similar effort is underway in Los Angeles and it is our desire to partner with "A Better LA" to form a bicoastal program for violence prevention and intervention. Eventually, we plan to disseminate and replicate this model throughout the United States and assist in the formation of "A Better Chicago," A Better Atlanta," A Better Miami," or wherever a program such as this is needed.

Contact Information A Better Philadelphia, Inc. PO Box 58132 Philadelphia, PA 19102 T: 215.884.7238 F: 480.247.5277 A Better Philadelphia, Inc. is a non-profit organization serving the Delaware Valley to end youth violence.