Community Violence Intervention

Faculty Affiliates

Rebeccah Sokol

Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Equity and Associate Professor of Social Work

Rebeccah Sokol is an associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work and School of Public Health. Sokol’s program of research focuses on evaluating strategies to alleviate youth adversity and trauma, including preventing chi...

Faculty Affiliates

Sarah A. Stoddard

Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Behavior and Health Education

[email protected]

Sarah Stoddard is an associate professor of health behavior and health education at U-M's School of Public Health, director of training and education core at U-M's Injury Prevention Center, co-lead of data and design core at the Eisenberg Family Depr...

Staff

John Bulat

Data and Policy Analyst

John Bulat is a data and policy analyst at Poverty Solutions. His work focuses primarily on the opioid crisis in Michigan and criminal justice-related topics. Prior to working at Poverty Solutions, Bulat spent eight years at the Center for Urban Stu...

Staff

Sam Stragand

Senior Program Manager, Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility

Sam Stragand is the senior program manager for the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility at Poverty Solutions, where he works with community partners to conduct research and evaluation projects in Detroit. Prior to joining Poverty Solutions, Strag...

In the Media

Detroit community violence intervention program shows positive results, study says

Sep 25, 2026 Michigan Public

Sam Stragand said that although the results couldn’t be directly attributed to the program, the decline of shootings in CVI zones was encouraging, especially since the rest of the city saw a smaller decline.

Mural: Detroit was made in the neighborhood

News Release

Detroit gun violence drops sharply during ShotStoppers program

Sep 23, 2026 Policy brief: Lessons from Detroit's ShotStoppers Community Violence Interventi…

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan evaluated the public safety impact of the community violence intervention program

Map of Community Violence Intervention zones in Detroit

In the Media

Double the Danger – Firearm Violence Among Latinos

Feb 28, 2026 El Central Hispanic News

Detroit has seen an historic decline in non-fatal shootings in recent years. However, from 2018 to 2021, firearm homicide rates among Hispanics rose 48%, compared to a 22% increase for white non-Hispanics.

Policy Briefs

Lessons from Detroit's ShotStoppers Community Violence Intervention Program

September 23, 2026

Sam Stragand, Amanda Nothaft, John Bulat

The City of Detroit partnered with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan to evaluate the first two years of the ShotStoppers program. Our evaluation drew on public safety data, administrative records, interviews, focus groups, and surveys t...

Policy Briefs

Sheriff and Community Mental Health Partner to Bring Co-Response to Washtenaw County, MI

March 18, 2026

Matthew Alemu

Download PDF of the full essay Introduction“Don’t hurt them!” I heard this appeal from a Black male driving by what he likely interpreted as the start of an unprovoked police encounter with a civilian. At a quick glance, this driver’s perception mak...

Funded faculty research

Evaluating Violence-Reduction and Summer Youth Employment Programs

January 2020 - December 2020

Sara Heller

This grant allowed Sara Heller to expand on three research projects that can provide evidence to guide the development of effective interventions aimed at youth whose families have low incomes.