Advance Peace Will Work to Reduce Gun Violence in East Lansing

In the midst of the sometimes tumultuous 2022-23 school year at East Lansing High School, when a couple of small groups of students repeatedly engaged in acts of violence against each other, a gun allegedly fell from a backpack during an altercation after a basketball game.  

The East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) community responded with a series of sometimes raucous school board meetings that featured often emotional public comment from students, staff and parents.  There seemed to be plenty of blame to go around, but the one constant was the recognition that gun violence had made its way into the school system.

The reaction included staff professional development sessions, parent meetings, student walkouts, and community groups and local churches offering resources to try to engage students who were most at risk. While it is not possible to know which of these initiatives were effective, the 2023-24 school year was a markedly quieter year. 

School safety concerns drove the recently approved $23.5 million bond proposal, as the community recognized that addressing gun violence was going to require long-term investments in building safety and administration. 

While steps have been taken to keep the schools safe, gun violence in East Lansing is a problem extending outside of the school district. A 2022 incident saw more than 30 shots fired downtown, last year the city experienced one of the great tragedies in its history when a gunman killed three Michigan State students and police have said they are finding more illegal guns in the city. 

The East Lansing City Council took an important step in curbing gun violence at its meeting on June 18 by partnering with gun violence reduction group Advance Peace. Following a presentation by Advance Peace leaders, council approved a $175,000 contract with the organization which was matched by funding from the federal government.  

Advance Peace was represented at the council meeting by Paul Elam and Charles Richardson, who have been running the Advance Peace model in Lansing over the past 18 months. 

This model was first proposed four years ago by former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, who was seeking ways to reduce the growing gun violence in Lansing. She turned to the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) for help. Advance Peace in Michigan is one of many public health initiatives run by MPHI, which is itself funded by several government agencies at the federal, state and local level, along with many private funders.

Advance Peace uses a system in which “change agents” and “peacekeepers” interact with “fellows” to make sure those fellows do not engage in gun violence. Many of the change agents and peacemakers have their own experiences with gun violence which they bring to the program. Change agents work with five fellows at a time in an 18-month program. They meet or talk to their assigned fellows three times every day. When situations dictate it, Advance Peace will pay off a debt that a fellow might owe someone who might be seeking revenge over that debt. They also will get fellows out of the city from time to time in order to diffuse tense situations.  

Elam explained that there was a need to expand to East Lansing because they identified individuals at risk of being involved in gun violence through their work in Lansing.

In addition to its work with fellows, Advance Peace responds to each shooting in the communities it works in, often speaking with victims or their families to ensure there will not be retaliation.

Advance Peace differs from other community based non-violence groups in that they do not work in cooperation with the local police. There are 11 Advance Peace models running throughout the country. The organization claims success in reducing gun violence through their unique approach in dealing with possible victims and perpetrators. They will, however, not cooperate or share information with local law enforcement or the judicial system.

“We do what works, not what people think is appropriate,” said Elam, who works as chief strategy officer for MPHI and holds a doctorate in family and child ecology.  

The need for confidentiality in dealing with people prone to gun violence is the foundation of the model.  

“How can I send a team of folks out into the community and expect the community to share information with us if we were sharing that information with law enforcement or the justice system?” Elam asked. “ We would lose all our credibility and I would be putting my staff in danger.”

Local law enforcement does not object to the Advance Peace model. Interim Police Chief Chad Pride said that ELPD and Advance Peace have the same goals and acknowledged that they will not be working hand-in-hand. Pride understands that the premise of Advance Peace is not to share information, and said the department respects that.

Both Elam and Richardson emphasized that they are not opposed to law enforcement efforts, but that Advance Peace and police play different roles in solving the same problem. 

“Gun violence is a public health issue in the same way Covid-19 is,” Elam said. 

He went on to point out that the job of the police and the judicial system is to enforce the law, while Advance Peace aims to prevent gun violence before it comes to the attention of law enforcement. The money funding Advance Peace is not coming out of funds that would otherwise go to the police.

Richardson explained that some fellows have never been outside of their own city. Taking them to a place where they do not have to be worried about being harmed or having to harm someone else can be transformative.  

“Some of them don’t expect to live into their 20s or 30s,” Richardson said.

There are many causes that lead someone into a situation where violence seems like the best option.  Many of these are systemic, while some are due to bad choices made by the individuals. 

“We can’t justify their actions; we just have to get them to a space where we can understand why they did what they did,” Richardson said. “It doesn’t excuse it, but we have to acknowledge in some way we all contribute to the problem if we don’t find ways to help.”

The fellows who make it through the program are invited to participate in what Advance Peace calls “Transformative Travel.” Elam explained that in many cases the perpetrator and the victim of a gun violence incident have never met each other face-to-face. They often develop the animosity that leads to cyclical retaliatory gun violence through gossip, rumors and social media.

Transformative Travel matches up the person who is being targeted with the person who intended to kill them. They might even stay in the same hotel room for a week as they visit historical sites, amusement parks and other venues. When that week is over, Advance Peace claims there has been great success in ending whatever feuds brought fellows to the program in the first place.

Both Elam and Richardson acknowledge that when we think of gun violence, we think of gangs. They assert that that is an inaccurate assessment. Many of the Advance Peace fellows have been part of gangs, but not all.  

The presence of gangs in Lansing and East Lansing, however, cannot be ignored. When Elam was putting the program together in Lansing three years ago, law enforcement told him that they believed there were 35 to 50 violent gang members in the area. Last year, that number grew to 85 to 90. When Elam shared that estimate with young people he interviewed in prison and juvenile detention they “laughed at that number as being far too low,” Elam said. 

Elam approached Lansing School District Superintendent Ben Shuldiner and after several meetings the school district and Advance Peace agreed to partner. The partnership only got rolling in the last month of last school year, but the district is enthusiastic about developing it in the fall.  

Cordelia Black, the executive director of culture and climate in the Lansing School District says that Advance Peace is helping students prone to gun violence to develop the social and interpersonal skills needed to stay in school.  The program is helping develop relationships and improve self-confidence, both of which are necessary to succeed in an environment where violence is too often relied upon to settle disputes.  

MPHI vetted the candidates who might be working in the schools, and Black selected the peacekeepers from that pool.  She has had no concerns with those who have been working in the schools.

“[It was a matter of] having the right adults in front of the kids,” Black said. “Advance Peace is doing a phenomenal job working with our community partners. Paul [Elam] and Charles [Richardson] are great guys who really care.”

At the June 18 City Council meeting, Councilmember Mark Meadows urged Advance Peace to look into working with the East Lansing Public Schools. Richardson expects at some point that will happen, but getting the program up and running in the city is his first priority.  

Inevitably, the issue of cost comes up in any discussion of new initiatives. Advance Peace believes that its program saves the city, county and state money by preventing gun crimes. Because many perpetrators of gun violence end up in prison for extended periods, every crime they prevent saves state and local government significant dollars.  

Elam cited a recently released study done by the University of California at Berkeley which concludes that in the 18-month program in Lansing, Advance Peace may have saved Lansing, Ingham County and the State of Michigan $24-$49 million.

“Some people might say that’s hypothetical, but we have evidence that documented when incidents were occurring and our staff defused them,” Elam said. 

When asked if East Lansing really needed a program like Advance Peace, Richardson’s answer was clear.

“If there is any community…ANY community…or school district that believes that gun violence can’t touch them, they would be naive,” he said. “What’s hard to digest is that this is a reality.”

Update 7/20: This story was updated to clarify Cordelia Black’s comments.