Partnering for Safety: Utilizing Community-Based Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence

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Amber Goodwin is the Founding Director of the Community Justice Reform Coalition (CJRC). CJRC is a national coalition working on policy reform and building resources for communities of color working at the nexus of gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform. She has spent the last 15 years working for advocacy, grassroots, and electoral campaigns. Prior to founding CJRC, she was the National Advocacy Director for [Americans for Responsible Solutions] (ARS), the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She also helped found the Women's Coalition for Common Sense, a multi-sector group of national women leaders who joined forces to reduce gun violence, and founded the National Gun Violence Prevention Race, Equity and Inclusion Task Force. Amber also currently serves as an Assistant District Attorney in Travis Co., TX.

DuJuan “Zoe” Kennedy, a key figure in the field of community violence intervention (CVI) and Executive Deputy Director of Programs at Force Detroit, is renowned for his transformative journey. Having spent 14 years incarcerated, his advocacy for activism and unity following his release in May 2019 has been outstanding. He played a pivotal role in establishing “Detroit Keepers,” a highly acclaimed CVI outreach team, at Force Detroit, which has gained recognition at both local and national levels. DuJuan has been an outspoken advocate for ending gun violence, with a specific emphasis on CVI. His innovative leadership and unwavering dedication to empower under-resourced communities have significantly influenced Detroit’s approach to the White House Community Violence Intervention Initiative. DuJuan is a proud graduate of The University of Chicago’s CVI Leadership Academy’s inaugural class.

Terun Moore is an activist for returning citizens. Originally sentenced to life without parole, Terun was paroled in 2017, after having served 19 years in adult confinement. Prior to his release, he completed his General Equivalency Diploma and graduated from several educational programs. Terun is a Hinds Community College Graduate. He is co-founder of People’s Advocacy Institute(nonprofit) that is an incubator for change in MS. People’s Advocacy Institute has been a pioneer behind the CVI scene in Jackson. Terun sits on the City of Jackson’s Public Safety Taskforce, which is developing the city’s first Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. Terun also helped create and develop Strong Arms of MS, the first credible messenger program in the state of MS, aimed at serving and rehabilitating justice-impacted youth. Terun is also an advocate for prison reform and dedicates his life to showing that second chances work. Terun is committed to healing his community of violence, poverty, and hunger.

Timmeka Perkins serves as a Senior Associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s National Community Strategies team where she focuses on community-based strategies for safety and violence reduction. She oversees a portfolio of national investments around gun violence prevention and place-based initiatives. Timmeka has over a decade experience in safety efforts, juvenile justice, alternatives to policing and law enforcement transformation with a focus on creating a more equitable and trauma-informed system through restorative justice practices, frontline youth diversion programs and uplifting youth and community voice. She has also been a tireless advocate in both the public and non-profit sectors in the fields of social justice and child welfare. She received her M.S. in Criminal Justice from Colorado State University in 2021 and graduated from Marshall University with her B.A. in Counseling in 2012.

Opal West is a senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. As part of the Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group, her work focuses on youth probation, the disposition most often imposed on young people who enter our nation’s juvenile justice system. West is helping to transform youth probation nationally into a focused intervention that promotes personal growth and long-term success for youth who pose significant risks for serious offending. Also, she guides juvenile justice agencies to treat families as partners. West began her career as a juvenile probation and parole officer in Louisiana. Working for state government there, she led efforts to improve conditions of confinement in detention centers across the state. She also led statewide expansion efforts for the JDAI® approach to building a better and more equitable youth justice system and was appointed to serve on a task force to develop standards of care for state-run secure facilities and local detention centers. West is a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.