The City of Newport News is dedicating $1.4 million annually to expand Hand in Hand, a violence intervention program based at Riverside Health.
The program puts social workers in the hospital to give patients who have been shot, stabbed or beaten help and support they may otherwise not have — everything from making sure they have housing once they leave the hospital to relieving financial strain by covering hospital bills.
The idea is that by making sure people have the resources they need, they can break cycles of violence that persist in communities across Newport News.
"The Hand in Hand Program represents a vital component of our city's broader strategy to combat violence and support our most vulnerable residents,” said Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones in announcing the funding. “Through this program's expansion, we are making significant strides toward fostering a safer and healthier community for everyone."
The expansion funded by the city will focus on preventing retaliatory violence, preventing reinjury of victims and keeping patients from future run-ins with the justice system. It will also expand the scope of the program to include victims of domestic violence.
Because of how violence tends to concentrate, victims of violence are more likely to become victims again in the future. Sometimes, the violence also prompts others to seek revenge, furthering the cycle.
Annie Wallner, who previously led the program at Riverside, told WHRO in 2022 she hoped Hand in Hand can start a different kind of cycle.
“It becomes this ripple effect,” Wallner said. “And you don't just touch the lives of one person, but that person. And then the choices that they make affect everybody. It affects the community, it affects their household, it affects their significant other or their parents or their children.”
Since then, those behind Hand in Hand leaders say their program seems to be making a difference.
Between July 2022 and June 2023, the program helped 610 people. A third of those were connected to community resources outside the hospital, and none of the people the program worked with ended up reinjured.
A key element of the growing program is improving community partnerships and continuing to build a network of local organizations social workers can call on to help patients.
The expansion will also include establishing an advisory council for Hand in Hand that includes city officials and community members.
