Community groups working to combat gun violence and provide support to victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Community groups like SNUG and MVP are working to reduce gun violence and provide support to victims.

Willie Griffin is the primary hospital responder for SNUG and helps victims during their hospital stay.

“They say, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to that party, maybe I should have been at home,’ but it’s not their fault there are guns here and these things happen,” Griffin said. “You can’t blame yourself.”

SNUG is a collaboration between ECMC’s Buffalo Rising Against Violence and the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. She considers gun violence a public health issue and works to improve the mental health of those affected.

“It’s normal. It’s something they expected, it’s not a question of if or not they will experience gun violence, but when,” said Shannon King, clinical director of BRAVE Trauma Recovery Center.

King says through counseling and programs, they work to help victims become survivors.

“Our goal is not to get them back to the level of functioning they were at before the injury, but to get them back to a new level of functioning, to their new baseline,” King said.

Through their work, Griffin and King hope every day to change the lives of people affected by gun violence, young and old.

“The things we see here in downtown Buffalo are not what you see when you live in the suburbs or nicer communities, so we want to change the narrative that these same nice things can happen right here , in Buffalo our community,” Griffin said.

MVP or the Most Valuable Parent program in Buffalo strives to heal our community through parenting, which Mia Ayers-Goss says needs to be done.

“We’re here to get to the root of the problem and try to find solutions, resources and support,” Ayers-Goss said. “But I’d like to ask our community to take a hard look in the mirror: What are you doing to help? It doesn’t have to be your whole life.”

“I want to raise my kids in this community, I want my kids to feel safe, just like everyone else’s kids should feel safe,” Griffin said.