Gun violence epidemic, recent mass shootings in Philadelphia push victim service agencies into overdrive

“The word victim is not singular anymore — it’s plural, it affects the whole community as a whole."

• By Kenny Cooper/WHYY

(Philadelphia) — When tragic events occur, it often falls to victim services organizations to help traumatized individuals pick up the pieces. And they step in to offer support to the broader community after horrifying incidents take place in public spaces, such as the mass shooting Feb. 17 at the Olney Transportation Center and the one just three days later at a bowling alley in Montgomery County.

The transportation center shooting left eight people, ages 17 to 70, wounded. The shooting at Old Town Alley in East Norriton left one man dead and four members of his family injured.

“The word victim is not singular anymore — it’s plural, it affects the whole community as a whole. So that’s why all of our services are free to victims and witnesses and community members,” said Melany Nelson, executive director of Northwest Victim Services.

Nelson’s agency is one of six nonprofits in the city that offer their support to community members after a violent crime occurs. Olney Transportation Center falls into her organization’s territory.

“So after that shooting at Broad and Olney, I made myself available, so I told people that if you know someone who was a witness to that shooting … they can contact me directly on my cell phone, which is 267-808-0350, if they are in need of therapy, because the victims were affected and the witnesses were affected and the community as a whole was affected,” Nelson said.

And, yes, she asked WHYY News to publish her phone number.

Victim service groups offer counseling, financial assistance, and help navigating courtrooms, all free of charge. Through a collaboration with the local police districts and hospital networks such as Einstein and Temple, Northwest Victim Services can spring into action 24/7 when gun violence occurs.

“For me and for my advocates, we are not desk-bound. We are boots on the ground,” Nelson said. “Pre-COVID, I would go to the victims’ houses. I would sit in the victims’ houses, and I would actually go to Einstein and I would go to Temple and see the victims while they’re in the hospital.”

Last year was a particularly deadly year in Philadelphia — the deadliest in three decades as the gun violence epidemic continued to surge. And 2021 has not been much better: In January alone, there were 50 homicides, a 32% increase over last year.

Non-fatal shootings, like the one in Olney, have also increased in 2021, by 71% compared to last year around this time.

Victim services agencies are, as a result, noticing an increased need for their services.

“Just in 2020, I think Temple probably referred over 200 gunshot victims to Northwest Victim Services, alone, and that’s just one hospital,” Nelson said.

Natasha McGlynn, interim executive director of the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia, manages an agency that serves more than 3,000 people annually.

“And so in the midst of a global pandemic, you’re also dealing with a gun violence epidemic, we’re also dealing with a mental health crisis as a result of the forced social isolation of the pandemic,” McGlynn said.

Another distressing trend has emerged as the gun violence epidemic continues to spiral, McGlynn said: revictimization.

“Maybe let’s look at a hypothetical, this is like a mother, and she started getting counseling services from AVP five years ago because her son was murdered,” McGlynn said. “Now, we might see that her nephew has been murdered. And so now she’s been revictimized. So there’s been an increase in the revictimization, and also an increase in how many family members are being affected.”

When a mass shooting occurs, McGlynn said, that number multiplies, and her organization is feeling the weight of this devastating year.

“And so, with the exponential increase in violence, we have seen [at] our very small but mighty agency an exponential increase in the request for our services,” McGlynn said. One of the things her agency struggles with these days is capacity, she said.

“And to the effect that I am the interim executive director, one of the things that I really struggle with and we as an agency struggle with is capacity.”

Chantay Love, a co-founder and program director of Every Murder Is Real Healing Center, said her nonprofit has three goals: “It’s to heal, prevent, and intervene.”

Helping with trauma, and more

EMIR offers resources ranging from therapy and alternative healing to relocation and financial assistance for funeral costs.

“Now, with a level of violence that you see now, we need to do our work a little wider,” Love said. “And so it’s not just about healing after the fact. It’s also about those who have been exposed and have never had services, and so can we also offer them some services to heal from some things, some of their trauma that they might have witnessed years ago.”

She said she and her team had a feeling that “this pandemic was going to be more trouble or more pain than we probably would have seen in a very long time.”

Love joined local elected officials Friday at a press conference at the Olney Transportation Center to call for tighter gun laws. Reflecting on it afterward, she added a request for lawmakers in Harrisburg.

“What we’re looking at is not only common-sense gun laws but resources to help repair a community that is being ripped to pieces — behind a lot of pain,” Love said, adding that systemic racism and inequities are playing a part in fueling the gun violence epidemic.

The Anti-Violence Partnership is also working with government officials to address some issues victims of gun violence face. Among those is the cost of crime scene cleanups.
“And so one of the things that came from that research was that we found huge discrepancies or gaps in the system. And we think of violence as a system, right? And the thing about crime scene cleanup, these companies … they’re unregulated by the state and they can charge anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000 for their services,” McGlynn said. “And so if you look at violence and who is being most impacted, these are low-income families, often families of color, and so if someone dies, the state will only reimburse them up to $500. So oftentimes, these families are left cleaning up the scene by themselves.”

After a December presentation to City Council by the Anti-Violence Partnership, cleanup issues were included in a resolution introduced by Councilmember Curtis Jones, passed Feb. 4, that calls for public hearings to look for more equitable solutions to policies “that place the logistical and financial burden on the families of homicide victims.”