Writer: Vittorio Parravano
2 min read January 2023 — Last Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration announced a $10 million grant for 11 hospital-based violence response programs in New Jersey. The federal aid is part of The American Rescue Plan (ARP) – a multi-billion dollar initiative – which President Joe Biden signed back in March 2021 to help the nation recover from COVID-19.
After the New Jersey Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (NJHVIP) received a monetary reduction in 2020, Attorney General Matthew Platkin worked in tandem with the Murphy administration to secure ARP funding and successfully complete the program’s fourth year.
The new funding allows 11 intervention programs to connect victims of criminal violence to community health leaders and provider staff — including social workers, health workers and violence interventionists — and give them guidance in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event.
The programs are held in 10 different counties, including Atlantic, Mercer, Camden, Essex, Monmouth, Cumberland, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic and Union Counties. HMH Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Monmouth County received the biggest sum, $1,028,850, to help them carry out Project HEAL.
Project HEAL is a new program at the Jersey Shore Medical Center that aims to break the cycle of violence by providing guidance to victims of criminal violence. Their team is made up of community leaders who have also undergone some sort of traumatic experience related to violence.
“These innovative violence intervention programs support survivors of gun violence from the very early stages of their healing journey to help disrupt the cycles of violence that have claimed the lives of too many New Jerseyans,” said Gov. Murphy in a press release. Attorney General Platkin added: “These innovative community-based partnerships with our leading medical institutions across the state are what happens when we treat public safety as a shared responsibility and as a matter of public health.”
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New Jersey has a crime rate that is well below national average; in 2020 the Garden state had a 195.4 rate of crime per 100,000 people, as opposed to the nation’s rate of 398.5.
“Keeping New Jerseyans safe is my number one priority, and these groundbreaking violence intervention programs stop cycles of violence before they start,” said Platkin.
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