Community looks for answers to stopping gun violence in the Triangle

Parts of the Triangle have been rocked by recent gun violence. In the last 24 hours, the community is stepping in to help.

On Wednesday night, there was renewed discussion from community leaders in Raleigh and Durham on how to prevent the violence from playing out over and over again.

In Durham, members of a safety task force discussed forming a program focused on hosting listening sessions with families impacted by gun violence and victims. In Raleigh, a pitch for the city to invest in a community violence intervention program.

"We see the numbers ... we see the trend," said Raleigh-Apex NAACP President Gerald Givens about the spiking gun violence.

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"It's not something foreign to me," he said.

Givens said he has seen enough gun-related crime as a civil rights leader and within his family.

"I've lost six family members to gun violence in my lifetime," he said. "I've lost my grandfather, my uncle, my brother and three cousins."

"They know we need to address this problem together as a team," said Givens.

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The four parts of the program would include violence intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy for survivors of gun violence and at-risk individuals, support services, including housing and employment, and changing the ecology of communities most impacted by gun violence.

"Our victims need voices," said Andrea 'Muffin' Hudson with the NC Community Bail Fund of Durham.

Members of Durham's Community Safety & Wellness Task Force proposed on Wednesday night a a program dedicated to providing listening sessions with gun violence survivors.

"We will learn from survivors what is needed and that will, in fact, inform our actions," said task force member Marcia Owen.

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Community leaders add that trauma from gun violence doesn't end even after the shooting stops.

"We need all the resources we can get right now," said Givens. "We're going to continue to do the work to bridge the gap to bring everyone together and I'm going to try and reach out to all the law enforcement agencies within our jurisdiction so that we can get together and really team up and work together."