Community-Driven Solutions to Gun Violence: Eleuthera Lisch Discusses Regional Efforts on The Day With Trae
Recently on The Day With Trae, Eleuthera Lisch visited host Trae Holiday to discuss the Regional Gun Violence Community Resource Guide. Lisch is the Director of the Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention at Seattle & King County Public Health. She shared insights from her extensive work in gun violence prevention and emphasized the importance of community-driven solutions.
“The regional office of gun violence prevention, unfortunately, is necessary because gun violence is a public health issue affecting all of us,” Lisch said. “The impacts of gentrification that have displaced folks all over the county have necessitated that the work grow beyond the great work that happens here in the city of Seattle to make sure that all the folks, wherever they are, have access to support.”
Lisch pointed out that gun violence is a public health issue, and treating it as such means providing support for everyone, regardless of where they live, work, play, learn, or hang out.
The Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention supports several community organizations that extend their work beyond Seattle's city limits. These include Community Passageways, the Southeast Network in the Rainier Vista area, the Boys and Girls Club, and the YMCA in West Seattle. They are also investing in Progress Pushers, the Freedom Project, and other organizations to ensure their reach extends throughout the region.
“The community resource guide pulls together information about not just those organizations, but others that aren't necessarily funded currently, but are part of a web of support,” Lisch said. “We need to make sure that everybody can see, in their time of need, that there are things available to them both in that immediate response from community organizations that do critical incident responding. They deploy to scenes of violence to help mitigate tension, to help deescalate folks, and to help connect people so that right there on the ground, in their moment of crisis, they can be connected to services and needs.”
Lisch explained that they are also supporting a hospital-based intervention, detailed in the Resource Guide, where survivors of gun violence meet bedside with every victim to connect them to community care. Additionally, there are individuals providing what they call "relentless engagement," maintaining daily contact with young people who are struggling. She emphasized the importance of recognizing that on either side of the gun, there is a victim; if one young person feels the need to claim power through violence, another young person's life is also affected, resulting in two impacted lives.
The community resource guide acknowledges this and ensures that care is available in reentry spaces, juvenile detention facilities, and other places where young people need to be connected to support. She believes that the community is the cure, and everyone has a responsibility to resource the community to be effective.
“This resource guide illustrates that community is the key resource,” Lisch said. “If violence is a public health issue, the community is the cure, and all of us have a responsibility to resource the community to be the cure. And also the individuals that are not necessarily therapists, but are caring adults, caring individuals, frontline workers—they are part of that solution, and we want to make sure that everybody is aware of what's available to them.”
Currently, there is a campaign on King County Metro buses that says, "Together We Un Gun Violence." Under this umbrella, there is a tag that Lisch is eager to share with everyone to help them get involved. The team is present at every community safety meeting, at schools, and community centers, distributing information and ensuring the QR code is highly visible. They are speaking about it and planning a significant push campaign to raise awareness. Being on platforms like this one is just one part of their broader effort to ensure everyone is informed and engaged.
“Seeing that in our work and in my dream world, we could create disruptive algorithms that anytime a young person spoke their pain or showed their pain in one way or another, we could flood them with information and resources,” Lisch said. “In the meantime, like you said, it's these people, these individuals, these caring adults, these credible messengers, folks with lived experience. I live by a motto that says we're all just walking each other home, and I believe that these folks illustrate and embody that theory, that idea that we're all just walking each other home.”
Lisch highlighted the crucial role of supportive individuals in moments of doubt and hardship, particularly when someone is contemplating a difficult decision and needs someone to intervene and uplift them. She emphasized the importance of caring adults in the community, such as a big brother, big sister, aunt, uncle, friend, cousin, or even a barber, in making a significant positive impact.
As summer approaches, a time that can be particularly challenging, Lisch stressed the responsibility of everyone to contribute. She noted that in government, it is their job to direct resources to the community and to follow the community's lead. The community has an obligation, rooted in ancient practices, to lead this work. When the community leads, it thrives.
Lisch asserted that it is their duty to support those on the front lines, ensuring they have everything they need to make meaningful connections and provide positive, uplifting care. She also acknowledged the role of Converge and its platform in providing an opportunity to discuss difficult truths, but also to celebrate joy, liberation, and freedom. She emphasized the importance of studying and sharing joy, as well as pain, and telling those stories to provide good medicine for the community.
“I want to speak to the young people. Know this: you are loved, and your life, your freedom, your joy, and your well-being matter to all of us,” Lisch said. “If you are in need of any help, don't hesitate to reach out to us. This message is not just for the young people, but for everybody. Together, we end gun violence. We're all in this together. Don't hesitate for a minute to reach out to us, because we're here for you.”
Learn more about Lisch by following her on LinkedIn at Eleuthera Lisch.
For more on finding mental health resources tune in with Trae every weekday at 11 a.m. on all Converge Media platforms and The Day With Trae YouTube Channel.
