committed to preventing and reducing violence through partnerships
The City of Milwaukee Health Department Office of Violence Prevention is committed to preventing and reducing violence through partnerships that strengthen youth, families, and neighborhoods. Offenses related to carjacking, reckless driving, and the high-speed chases that result have become a public health crisis in Milwaukee. In some areas of the city, the fear of being injured or killed by reckless driving or someone fleeing a traffic stop is equal to the fear of violence. We believe that these incidents are preventable, and we must do everything possible to shift this behavior. We are proud to stand with youth in our city who are using their voice and creativity to address this critical issue. Jack A Car, Jack Up Your Life, is a campaign that addresses this issue from multiple vantage points—parents, youth, first responders, survivors, and friends. We need the entire community to step up and support solutions to this problem. This is a preventable crisis that impacts the safety and wellbeing of everyone. Together we can do this.
On Thursday, April 4, 2019 the Office of Violence Prevention launched 414 LIFE, a program that uses a public health approach to interrupting the transmission of conflict and retaliatory violence. The program engages community members with the credibility, courage, and commitment to intervene in the lives of those that are at highest risk for shooting or being shot. 414 LIFE is a partnership between the City of Milwaukee Health Department, Uniting Garden Homes, Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin, Ascension Wisconsin, Children's Hospital's Project Ujima, and Cure Violence. This approach was called for by the community in Milwaukee's Blueprint for Peace.
As of the beginning of June 2019—the Office of Violence Prevention/414 LIFE have conducted over 35 successful high-risk mediations that could have resulted in gun violence “...414 LIFE has potentially saved $3.5 million in healthcare costs in 6 months”