Healthy Empowered Achieving Leaders for DC
Peace For DC's HEAL DC program is a neighborhood-based life transformation program that provides long-term wraparound care and healing for a cohort of individuals most at risk of involvement in gun violence, in DC’s most impacted communities. This program is modeled on successful programs like READI and Chicago CRED, and incorporates Roca’s Rewire Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT). Recent research on Chicago CRED indicates impressive results with no further charges for violent crime among 73% of individuals who completed the program.
Working in collaboration with our community-based partners, we are helping individuals who have been locked in a cycle of violence and trauma to break free and become: Healthy, Empowered, Achieving Leaders for DC.
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HEAL DC programming begins with recruitment, onboarding and orientation, and then progresses through three main phases of intensive wraparound care, before graduation and alumni support. Each cohort is 9 to 12 months long. Participants attend weekly one-on-one session with a Case Manager, Therapist, Violence Intervention Specialist, and Education/Career Coach. They also attend twice weekly group life skills classes and psychoeducation sessions- an especially meaningful milestone given the high levels of trauma exposure in the cohort.
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A Wider Circle is a key partner for HEAL DC, providing career services that help participants build long‑term stability. Through this partnership, HEAL participants receive individualized employment coaching, job search support, résumé development, and access to professional clothing and essential household items. A Wider Circle’s holistic approach to workforce readiness and basic needs support reinforces our wraparound model and helps participants move toward independence and economic mobility.
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For HEAL DC success means:
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participants moving from crisis to stability,
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participants able to manage daily survival needs independently,
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participants completing job readiness programs, gaining employent and working towards short- and long-term goals,
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participants not initiating or engaging in violence behavior,
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neighborhoods with decreased rates of violence.
SUPPORT OUR PARTICIPANTS DIRECTLY
Our participants have needs big and small. One way that you can make an impact directly is by purchasing toiletries and other essential items from our Amazon Wish List. By ensuring that these gentlemen have deodorant and that their other basic needs are met, we help them to have confidence and stability, which makes it possible to start digging deeper and working towards bigger goals. We appreciate your support!
The Cycle of Violence and Trauma
Helping a person to break free from a cycle of violence and trauma, making it possible for them to move past survival-mode and even begin to think about a life beyond pain and fear and grief, is a monumental task. We do not take any piece of this work lightly, and every kernel of hope or glimmer of transformation that we witness in our participants is a motivation for why we do this work.
In order to drastically reduce the number of homicides and shootings across Washington DC, this program needs to be expanded to work with at least 200 people each year. We are seeking a small group of catalytic funders and multi-year supporters to make this acceleration possible. Join us in healing communities and giving every DC resident a chance to live a full life.
