10/31/2026
OUR VIBE AND ACTES TEAMS WERE APART OF A GROUP FROM ALLEGHENY COUNTY THAT RECEIVED THE NATIONAL JURISDICTION AWARD FROM CITIES UNITED IN MEMPHIS TN. During the NATIONAL Cities United conference.
-From Nic Cotter (ACDHS)
Allegheny County, PA (Greater Pittsburgh Region) & our Community Violence Reduction Initiative (CVRI) won the Jurisdiction Award at the 13th Annual Convening of Cities United, with Cities United being the national leader in bringing stakeholders together to reimagine public safety (and one that just fused with Cure Violence Global to become Bridge Forward).
The annual Jurisdiction Award recognizes the places/local governments/people where stakeholders there have successfully built out & support a comprehensive, coordinated, sustained & data driven ecosystem to reduce community violence through exceptional governmental leadership & community partnership, a great honor given how many jurisdictions attend Cities United every year & the progress we’ve made as a region.
Building off decades of community violence reduction work led by community members, practitioners, community-based organizations, The University of Pittsburgh, & local government institutions (The Allegheny County Health Department & City of Pittsburgh) in Allegheny County, The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (ACDHS) launched the Community Violence Reduction Initiative (CVRI) in 2023, alongside the aforementioned partners.
CVRI & this award are the culmination of so much work.
OGs like Richard Garland, Rashad Byrdsong & more started community violence reduction work in Allegheny County a few decades back & their mentees and partners (practitioners & leaders like Lee Davis, Taili Thompson, Cornell Jones, Reggie Smith, Rev. Smith, Biggs Bigelow & way too many people to name) went on to expand, innovate & support that work. In turn, mentees of the mentees also went on to get involved in reduction, many of whom now lead the teams who do this crucial work.
In 2021, all with the support of Erin Dalton, who has long supported this work, & Jessica Ruffin, Ph.D., MBA, Reggie Smith & I started planning for CVRI and then launched it in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh & a swath of community-based partners in 2023, with CVRI being the largest investment in public heath approaches to community violence reduction in Allegheny County history & deeply expanded, coordinated, innovated upon, & focused this work. Community partners from highly impacted communities in Sto-Rox, the City of Pittsburgh, the eastern suburbs and throughout the Mon Valley.
At the county, CVRI now lives in the newly created ACDHS Office of Community Justice and Safety, with OCJS helmed by Jenn Batterton & ACDHS led by Alex Jutca. Since 2025, Sierra Cuellar, MPH has been the Senior Program Manager of our CVRI team, now supported by program specialists Ashley Cabiness, Jordan Morris, & Thomas Tyson + Reggie & me. The City of Pittsburgh has recently hired their own violence reduction specialists to support their work, under Cornell Jones.
Extremely proud of our county & being part of this work. Thanks for the recognition Cities United.-
