Some Topekans feel unsafe in their neighborhoods. This program wants to change that perception.

Glenda DuBoise wants a Topeka community that can always say it feels safe.

As a longtime community advocate, and most recently as the executive director of the Topeka Center for Peace and Justice, DuBoise said she often hears people say that they don’t feel safe in certain parts of town, pointing to gun violence in the community.

It’s a perception that has to change, DuBoise said, and to do that, the Topeka community has to work toward addressing some of the underlying community issues and divides that lead to violence.

That’s why the Center for Peace and Justice — which is committed to advocating for equality, peace and justice for all — is spearheading a program called Strategies Against Violence Everywhere, in partnership with other area social agencies and community leaders. The program takes a three-tiered approach of using law enforcement, social service agencies and community moral voices to address the opportunities for violence before they ever happen.

“The biggest goal is to not arrest our way out of this, to not arrest young people and keep those at highest risk out of prison and alive,” said Lindsey Anderson, program director for the Center for Peace and Justice.

Violence often manifests from prior trauma, so any solution to violence has to include social work agencies to address the underlying issues and traumas people may experience, especially in high-violence neighborhoods. Law enforcement also must play a role but by taking a more community-driven, rather than enforcement-driven approach, Anderson said.

Community moral voices — like faith leaders, reformed ex-offenders, and families who have lost relatives to gun violence — will also help mediate disputes and mentor those who might be on a path to violence, Anderson said, using a framework called restorative justice. The framework focuses on bringing offenders and victims together to talk through incidents and heal divisions.

“I hope that when people think about the SAVE program, they see that we are all here to work together to keep our communities safe,” said Hannah Schumacher, a member of Kansas’s chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Schumaker also serves on SAVE’s executive council.

As the program eventually begins full operations, DuBoise and Anderson said they hope people are able to focus on the lasting change, rather than the program itself.

“I hope that when we have these conversations later on, we can say that nobody has lost their lives to gun violence,” Anderson said. “That we impact the community and say that we’re done tolerating these young kids committing these violent crimes and killing each other and thinking that’s the only way of life. There’s so much more for them, and we want to empower them and tell them, ‘We need you here too. We don’t want you in jail, and we don’t want you on the streets committing these violent crimes.’”

And DuBoise said she’ll know the program has been effective once people start thinking about Topeka differently.

“We’ll know we’ve been successful if the community itself feels safer — that the people in the community will say ‘I feel safe,’” she said.