St. Louis Violence Prevention Commission

“The problem being, there are people with very good intentions who want to do something, but they don’t necessarily know all of the agencies and coalitions that are already out there doing the work. And so people tend to start new things rather than trying to figure out what’s already going on,” said Jessica Meyers, coordinator for the Saint Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission.
The Saint Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission, or STL VPC, is a group dedicated to connecting and organizing other organizations addressing the problem of gun violence in the St. Louis area. The group works with over 100 organizations, all targeting different aspects of gun violence in St. Louis.
“We are not a direct service organization, we’re more of an umbrella organization that aligns and convenes all the agencies that are working on violence prevention in the St. Louis region,” Meyers said.
STL VPC’s website states that the organization envisions a St. Louis region where communities enjoy quiet nights and the sounds of children playing during the day.
“We really want to focus on what the risk factors are for being a victim of violence or the perpetrator of violence, and what the protective factors are,” Meyers said. “We have groups that are working to decrease poverty, and that’s part of violence prevention. We have groups that are working to green vacant properties in St. Louis city, and that’s violence prevention.”
The organization’s guiding principles include focuses on respect, integrity, community engagement and racial equity.
“One of our objectives is to improve police-community relationships. Unsurprisingly, post-Ferguson and even prior to the death of Michael Brown, there was a lack of trust between communities, especially communities of color, and gay and trans and queer communities with law enforcement,” Meyers said.
STL VPC has created an anonymous online survey and held events, which gave people an opportunity to discuss what is working and what isn’t in the St. Louis policing system, a factor tied closely to gun violence in the St. Louis area.
The Youth Violence Prevention Partnership (YVPP) works closely with STL VPC. This group shares many of the same focuses and is especially specialized in the safety of youth in the St. Louis area. The two organizations are closely linked, and both are working for a safer St. Louis.
To get involved with STL VPC, the group has created four levels of engagement: promotion, universal prevention, selective prevention and intervention. Promotion involves spreading the word about STL VPC, universal prevention focuses on prevention programs benefiting groups or communities, while selective prevention includes programs focused on individuals at high risk for being involved in violence as either the perpetrator or the victim. Finally, intervention involves serving individuals who have been directly or indirectly affected by violence in their community.