Photo: Marcel Strauß | Unsplash
The city of Poughkeepsie, NY, US, is taking a novel approach to trying to reduce gun violence. Through a program called SNUG (Guns spelled backwards), it is putting social workers out into the community meeting people where they are. In SNUG’s model, therapy happens in casual conversations, or even over text. The goal, then, is to be where people are – on street corners, front porches and in pizza joints, engage them in conversations, and build trust. The program has worked to find staff who have personal experience with trauma and who are credible messengers in the community “There’s so much trauma in these communities, and so much healing that needs to be done. This is a first step toward addressing it,” said Erika Mendelsohn, the statewide social work director for SNUG.
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