Violence in Camden, Support Groups offer Hope

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers focuses on healthcare in the city. As my piece, I focus on the disease of violence. Like disease, violence can be both chronic and acute; it infects others by eating away at the core values and integrity of people and communities. To talk about violence and Camden in the same sentence is nothing new. The violence here has become so commonplace that it has become ignored or rationalized as part of life in the city.

A little over a month ago a boy, 9, named Jorge Cartegena was caught in the crossfire on Marlton Pike and hit in the eye with a bullet intended for another. The community and region watched in outrage for a few days as the boy struggled to survive in Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania. Miraculously, he survived, but according to his doctors, he will never see again. With a story like this came the inevitable media attention and calls for change in Camden. NBC and ABC sent over their crews and interviewed locals about the violence they experience every day. The shooting of the 9 year old boy was a tragedy, but so is the fact that it takes an event like the accidental shooting of a nine year old to cause people to pay attention to the violence in Camden. The next month, like the months before, brought with it shootings, stabbings, and deaths that received little more than a reference in the Courier Post. These other violent assaults were not as media-friendly: a teenage boy who was trying to get out of a gang, a boy beaten by his classmates in elementary school, or a young woman who looked at someone too long at the train station. I see victims like these every day. These victims of stabbings, shootings, and beatings often realize they were lucky to escape from their assault alive and are struggling with this new reality.

As Coalition’s Intervention Specialist for the Guidance, Preservation, and Support Program (GPS), it is my job to go the hospital bed-sides and homes of residents who are victims of violent crimes in the city. GPS aims to provide a support structure that allows victims to escape of the cycle of violence. After two years of seeing victims individually, last week marked the start of our GPS support group. The support group gives participants an opportunity to cultivate relationships with other individuals experiencing similar challenges. We hope to use these meetings as a platform to introduce and reinforce life altering concepts and ideas. The group sessions have only just begun, but I have already witnessed incredible openness and support among participants. Many of these victims are young and, from previous experience, I realize the window of opportunity for their openness is short lived. Our hope is that this support group will help provide these individuals with an outlet to help them imagine and realize an alternate reality for themselves. At some point I hope that all acts of violence elicit the same response as the one elicited by what happened to Jorge Cartegena. Only by removing the thread of violence can we hope to change the fabric of our community.