By Alaina Bookman | AL.com

In 2025, AL.com’s “Beyond the Violence” project, in partnership with The Birmingham Times, examines whether Birmingham can grow beyond its crime problem and become safer, healthier and happier.

Two years ago, Amiriya Rowser was lying in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound, wondering who she could trust.

Initially, Rowser didn’t want to talk to the stranger who approached her and offered support services, so she was released from the hospital with little support. But when Rowser was shot again, she said, she was all in.

That’s when members of Birmingham’s Offender Alumni Association stepped in: Violence intervention specialists checked in on Rowser and helped her pay for expensive medication after she went through 16 surgeries, bills when she was unable to work and transportation when she could not walk. Rowser said members of the association are like her family now.

Rowser herself now works with the association as a violence intervention specialist. She looks forward to using her experience to help others.

Gunshot survivors often have lifelong physical and mental scars. If released from the hospital without support and resources, experts say, some may be tempted to retaliate or solve future conflict with more violence.

“The first time, I didn’t really go through with it, so I was re-injured. And the second time is when I really got active with the program, because I wanted to change for myself. I didn’t want to go through the same thing anymore,” Rowser said. “I want to make a change and show people that I’ve been through it too, and it gets better. I want them to know that someone cares.”

Rowser is a living example of a successful violence prevention tactic: Talking to gunshot victims soon after they are injured. Expanding that same Birmingham program, experts say, could save more lives.

What is a Hospital Violence Intervention Program?

Birmingham saw a devastating, record-breaking year of homicides in 2024.

In January, a new Crime Commission made a series of recommendations to stop violent crime in the city and make it “the safest city in America.” One suggestion? Expand the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital Violence Intervention Program, started in 2023, to local emergency departments.

The program engages gunshot victims at their bedside while they are hospitalized, offering mental health services and case management to prevent reinjury and retaliatory violence.

The city followed through with additional funding of $297,582 to create an emergency department violence intervention team that will provide services to even more gunshot victims and their families.

“They wanted to expand to the emergency department because they knew that there was a gap, that we were missing people,” Offender Alumni Association Executive Director Deborah Daniels said.

The program currently works through a partnership with the UAB Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and the Offender Alumni Association, whose members were once justice-involved and now use their experiences to work with youth and adults in need. The Jefferson County Department of Health and the city of Birmingham provide financial and administrative support.

“If we’re talking about making Birmingham safer, then we need to engage with those who are being released, who are more likely to go back into a compromising situation than those who have been in the hospital and really have had time to think about and process the impact that the incident has had on their lives,” Daniels said.

Maurice Webb, 31, said members of the Offender Alumni Association helped him to navigate life’s challenges. Now, he has the chance to help others in the emergency department.

“I could apply that same knowledge and leadership into helping others and make a difference in people’s lives,” said Webb, who is now a violence intervention specialist.

“Our whole goal is breaking cycles of violence…It’s critical that we show these patients that there’s people that can help, that they can be here for you, that’s not against you. The expansion gives everyone the opportunity to know about the program. It opens up doors and resources for people. It’s empowering, and I feel like everyone should have that opportunity.”

The Hospital Violence Intervention Program’s impact: ‘Love’

Since the program’s launch, the Hospital Violence Intervention Program has taken on 144 clients. Violence specialists provide wrap-around services to victims and their families including mentoring, emergency relocation, transportation and financial aid for medicine, groceries, rent and utilities.

“We come in and we try to wrap around an individual with love. We let them know that they are important, valued. They have worth. We want them to know that their situation is just temporary and that they can move forward, past that,” Daniels said.

The violence intervention specialists said they go through life with their clients.

“When you get there, you constantly have a fear. So you have to bring them out of that anxiety. You have to really walk with them after that trauma, because they’re not the same person. Once you get in that hospital and you’re traumatized, you go through this metamorphosis of ‘Who am I? What’s going on? Why have I come to this?’” Timothy Lanier, violence intervention professional with the Offender Alumni Association, said.

“When we walk in, we can talk you through everything because we’ve been through the trauma. That’s where we bring you out, we open up that door and show you that there’s light on the other side.”

In two years, of the 144 clients they served and kept off the street, three were reinjured and one person was killed. That’s a high level of success, advocates say.

“Although successful in individual cases, the program is currently limited in scope due to funding constraints,” the Crime Commission’s report reads.

Violence prevention specialists say their work saves lives, but they could do even more with additional resources. Program coordinators say the new emergency department violence intervention program is still in its planning stages.

The violence intervention specialists, Webb and Rowser, are currently going through training. They said they are excited to help others on their road to recovery and healing.

“That will allow us to connect with those individuals that are not admitted to the hospital, who come to the emergency department to get care for their gunshot wounds, but are released,” Daniels said. “That way we can help those individuals also navigate on a better path, not return and be re-injured, and help reduce any retaliation.”

What else is Birmingham doing to stop the violence?

Mayor Randall Woodfin formed the independent Birmingham Crime Commission in October 2024, made up of residents and leaders from business, community, criminal justice, healthcare and nonprofit sectors to identify strategies to address the city’s high homicide rate.

In December, the Birmingham city council approved $2 million to support the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety Initiatives strategy.

The commission’s report, published in January, is the most recent step in the effort to combat gun violence in Birmingham. The report stressed the importance of expanding the hospital violence intervention program.

Gun violence rates can be curbed through hospital violence intervention, according to David Hicks, Jefferson County health officer and member of the Crime Commission.

“Who else can we potentially impact their lives that are not able to meet the eligibility criteria of the current program?” Hicks said. “We know that we have this program that we’re currently doing that’s very, very successful. If you can cover more lives and meet people where they are, it’s really ideal. So it’s a continuum.”

Birmingham recently released an update on the city’s progress in implementing the Crime Commission’s recommendations. And Woodfin committed to providing status updates throughout the implementation process including meeting with members of the Crime Commission.

Of more than 80 recommendations made by the Crime Commission, 23 are in the planning and development phase, the mayor said. Another 23 are in pre-launch or in progress, including the hospital violence intervention program’s expansion to UAB’s emergency departments.

“That’s the promise of what comes out from this Crime Commission report, is that if we do these things in a certain fashion and learn from the successes of others around the country, then we truly can reduce the gun violence, injuries, victimization in Birmingham,” Hicks said.

The expanded Hospital Violence Intervention Program, along with other city of Birmingham violence prevention programs, should start in March.

“We are saving lives. We are helping families become healthy and whole in spite of the situation and the circumstances that the injury has caused,” Daniels said. “We will always be here to serve and work with our allies in the community, with the city, to make Birmingham safer.”

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