Beyond the Bullet: How Gun Violence Survivors Are Leading Change in Virginia
Lydia Mitchell is excited for spring. I met the 7-year-old on the 2026 spring equinox, and it did not take long to understand why. When we were first introduced, she greeted me with a warm smile and cheerful “hello,” as if we had known each other for years. Beyond her excitement for warmer weather, she radiated a vibrant, rejuvenating energy that mirrored the springtime itself.
For the most part, Lydia is like any other child. She is curious about new things, as shown by her enthusiasm to learn about and play with the camcorder I brought for our interview. She loves the color pink, her parents and her “baby dog,” Mitch. A self-proclaimed gamer, she spends her free time playing Roblox and Minecraft. When I asked her to describe herself, Lydia said she is “always excited,” a sentiment that showed in the way she lit up as she talked about the joy she finds in solving addition and subtraction problems. She aspires to be a chef one day, and you could bet that pepperoni pizza, her favorite dish to cook, will likely be a staple on her menu.
In the two hours I spent with Lydia, it was hard to believe that a child so full of life had come so close to losing hers.
Lydia was struck by a stray bullet on July 7, 2023, in Virginia Beach. Though she was only 4 years old, she remembers the moment that changed her and her family’s lives forever.
“I was shot in my left eye when I was with my dad, and it really hurt,” said Lydia. “We went to the hospital. My dad saw a lot of blood.”
Lydia’s experience was tragic and it unfortunately does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, it reflects a broader reality: the United States of America has a gun violence problem.
The Gun Violence Problem
Each day, 130 people are killed, and over 200 are shot and wounded in gun-related incidents in the United States. These deaths and injuries include suicides, homicides, mass shootings, unintentional shootings and law enforcement shootings.
Compared to other high-income countries, gun homicides occur in America at an exceptional rate. A 2021 report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that the United States ranked first out of 65 high-income countries and territories with over 10 million people in gun homicides and seventh overall.
“This is a problem for everyone,” said January Serda, a gun violence survivor. “It's really important that we don't normalize this violence, even though it's happening everywhere. It feels like every time you turn on the news, a senseless act of gun violence and another life lost.”
Serda refers particularly to community gun violence, a form of interpersonal gun violence that usually happens in public spaces and puts the larger community in danger. It makes up the majority of gun homicides in the United States and disproportionately affects under-resourced communities, particularly Black and Hispanic/Latino populations.
“You could have someone who is shot in an incident… and they're just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Brittany Utz, a principal legislative analyst at the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC), which published a study titled “Effects of Community Gun Violence in Virginia” in December 2025. “It affects people wanting to go out and wanting to be in public spaces. It really can impact day-to-day lives.”
Community gun violence can leave long-term, harmful impacts on those who lose loved ones to it, survive it and are surrounded by it.
Serda lost her son, Justice Dunham, a week after his 17th birthday. He was killed on Dec. 14, 2021 after an altercation with another student in the parking lot of Menchville High School.
“When you lose a child to gun violence, you're sad all the time. I've come to just accept that about myself,” said Serda. “Life just was upside down now. I couldn't see it in color anymore.”
Lawrence Futrell is a maintenance technician who was shot in the abdomen in February, leaving him to recover from broken ribs and lasting psychological trauma.
“It has really taken a toll on my life, on my family and on my marriage,” said Futrell. “I haven't been able to sleep at night. [I have] night terrors, anxiety, always on high alert, paranoia to a degree and outbursts. I felt broken on the inside and nobody could see it.”
Others become emotionally desensitized, a trauma response in which people who undergo constant exposure to violence can develop dulled emotional reactions.
“I’ve experienced gun violence growing up, whether it was cousins or just being around guns in general. As I got older, I started being a mentor and lost mentees. I lost a cousin due to gun violence last month,” said Mykenna Waller, a Hampton Roads native. “I've become numb to it. It’s not something that takes a toll on me as much as it used to. It's almost like grief doesn't exist anymore.”
Some survivors are left with lifelong physical disabilities.
“Lydia is blind in her left eye now,” said Kayla Ware, Lydia’s mom and community engagement specialist at the Norfolk Health Department. “She had a retinal detachment, and she's had a vitrectomy. Now, we have issues like cataracts and a wandering eye.”
These lived experiences and the struggles that follow reflect those of many individuals across the country. 41% of people who have experienced personal gun violence report having lasting trauma. Survivors are often left navigating mental, emotional and physical challenges, oftentimes without clear access to the help they need.
“After my time at the hospital, I don't think I received all the resources that are out there. I wish that I had a little bit more information from the hospital and from the police department,” said Ware. “I never heard back from them after that day. I really didn't have any help.”
Now, gun violence survivors in the Hampton Roads area can find support at the Violence Intervention & Prevention Trauma Recovery Center, a facility founded in response to gaps in resources and rooted in a personal connection to gun violence.
From Survivor to Solution
Cameron Bertrand’s life was impacted by community gun violence long before his work to end it. Growing up, he witnessed how shootings impacted his friends and family. It hit close to home during a party his junior year of high school.
“There was a time when certain neighborhoods just couldn't be around each other. I remember seeing some of those neighborhoods out there at that party, and I had a feeling it wasn't gonna end in a good night,” said Bertrand, founder and CEO of Violence Intervention & Prevention (V.I.P) LLC and TRC. “That was the first time I ever saw somebody get shot and killed right in front of me. I started to believe that at some point, I might too end up a victim of gun violence.”
Unfortunately, he was right.
On Nov. 7, 2015, Bertrand and his best friend, Dorian Jackson, suffered life-threatening injuries when they were shot in an attempted robbery at Norfolk State University’s homecoming.
The gunshot initially left Bertrand paralyzed from the knee down in his left leg. In the chaotic moments after, he and Jackson lay in pools of their blood while cars drove by. He called the emergency department and reached out to friends and family.
The paramedics eventually arrived, but the traumatic experience did not end at the hospital.
“I'm asking the doctors what's going on, and nobody's answering me. At the same time, the detective came in my room and interrogated me. He didn't offer me any support. He had questions that I didn't have the answers to that were triggering and not trauma-informed. And I asked them, ‘Why are you treating us like this? We're innocent.’ This man looked me in my face and said, ‘You got to understand that everybody that came in here tonight said they were innocent.’”
The culmination of Bertrand’s experience–witnessing community violence at a young age, surviving a shooting by someone in need of resources and navigating insensitive care at the hospital–laid the foundation for the V.I.P Trauma Recovery Center and V.I.P LLC.
V.I.P Trauma Recovery Center
Trauma Recovery Centers, or TRCs, are community-centered environments that provide free case management, mental health support and other needs for survivors of all violent crimes. Pioneered by UC San Francisco in 2001, the care model was designed to prioritize underserved communities and offer a full-service approach to recovery.
“[TRCs use] assertive outreach to really find folks who typically fall through the cracks,” said Janelle Melohn, senior director of the National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Centers. “It combines evidence-based psychotherapy options alongside clinical case management, basic needs like shelter and housing, transportation, emergency food and things like that, so you can stabilize lives and address the root causes of violence.”
TRCs are more inclusive in their intake process than other options, making them an accessible choice for all survivors.
“TRCs take victims of any violent crime, gender, sexual orientation and location of crime. A lot of these things will exclude you from some of the traditional service providers and they don't from Trauma Recovery Center services,” said Melhon. “We don't turn folks away because they have complex mental health issues, substance use or disorders. [TRCs] welcome those folks with open arms and that's just atypical.”
The model has expanded nationwide with 53 current member programs and three set to open this year. Until now, access was nonexistent in Virginia, forcing survivors to look as far as Atlanta or New Jersey for services. The V.I.P TRC, located in Newport News, hopes to improve access to trauma-informed care with its grand opening in June.
At first glance, Virginia’s gun violence rate is near the national average, ranking 23rd in the number of violent firearm offenses. However, just nine localities, including Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth and Norfolk, make up over half of all gun-related homicides.
In communities where violence is prevalent, the need for long-term care is dire.
“With us having the only [TRC] in the state, we have a lot of heavy lifting,” said Bertrand. “This TRC is to make sure that no matter what happens… we provide resources for families that need us when they call every time.”
Victim services are a focal point for the TRC, particularly the Virginia Victims Fund, a state program that reimburses innocent victims of violent crimes for out-of-pocket expenses such as funeral arrangements, relocation costs and medical bills. By offering help with applications and providing legal advocacy, the TRC aims to help patients with financial obligations.
The center also focuses on helping survivors navigate encounters with law enforcement, especially when they may not be comfortable.
“My past is from the streets, so I already have an issue trusting the police,” said Futrell. “I have things tied up into this that I can't get back or get to because [law enforcement is] holding my belongings. I'm already dealing with the trauma from being shot. So I have to go to Cam and other people to help me get those things back.”
In addition to victim services, the facility will provide the other resources characteristic of TRCs. This includes mental health counseling, grief support, physical therapy, pain management and wound care to address both mental and physical trauma. The center will also provide temporary housing for people displaced by violence, as well as access to basic necessities such as food and clothing.
“It's such a wraparound service. There are so many opportunities that [patients] are going to have,” said Waller, who also serves as a program coordinator for the TRC. “We’re basically getting them back to being a holistic person again and not feeling like they got a piece of themselves missing.”
Beyond trauma support, the TRC will also create a tangible community hub for survivors.
“After losing my son the way I did, I didn't trust anybody and felt like nobody could understand,” said Serda. “When I did finally find a community of bereaved mothers, I felt seen, heard and understood. The idea of a center where you could go and find that immediately is invaluable, especially because we experience so much violence here.”
For V.I.P, community isn’t just for healing: it’s the foundation for violence intervention and prevention. The goal is not simply to treat survivors of violent crimes, but to stop it before it starts.
V.I.P LLC
Founded in 2019, V.I.P LLC is the parent organization for the V.I.P TRC. The nonprofit helps youth and adults experiencing or susceptible to violence through counseling, mentorship, and educational programs. It applies principles of Community Violence Intervention (CVI), an evidence-based, community-centered approach designed to stop cycles of violence in high-risk neighborhoods.
The organization focuses on teaching leadership, community engagement, conflict resolution, gang violence awareness and more to help teens positively influence their surroundings and stay out of trouble. It has served over 750 families nationwide.
For participants like Sumyah Tate, V.I.P doesn’t just provide essential skills: it’s also a safe space.
“When I was in ninth grade, I lost one of my friends, Samari, to gun violence in Hampton. Later on, I lost Kam and Barie. On Thanksgiving last year, I lost my friend, Zaier Ellis,” said Tate, a V.I.P’s youth president and Newport News native. “Being able to bring the youth together in areas where they don't have to worry about being involved in violence [is important]. They can have outlets to make money and stay out the streets.”
The new TRC building will expand on this platform by giving participants workforce development and job placement opportunities. The center will house the first expansion of East End Cafe, a Black-owned coffee shop, providing employment. It will also include a salon, recording studio and podcast stations, with free access provided to participants enrolled in the center’s programming.
The organization also focuses on direct intervention by providing a crisis hotline, mentoring at-risk individuals, connecting them to resources to get on the right path and mediating neighborhood conflicts before they turn deadly.
“Gun violence has been around me my whole life. Whether it was somebody just getting shot near me, a friend getting shot, I've been shot and three of my brothers have been shot,” said Carlos Douglas, a Hampton Roads native and V.I.P mentee. “Once I got shot and [Bertrand] found out, he introduced me to a program at Riverside Hospital. I was having trouble paying for my high school diploma because I dropped out. That program got me my high school diploma. Since then, I've been striving.”
Research that follows the CVI structure shows that it can be effective. For example, some cities that use violence interrupter programs, which aim to stop retaliatory violence and change the practice of using guns in conflict, have seen a decrease of over 30% in shootings and killings.
Mentorship-based prevention programs can also be successful, with one study showing arrests dropping 44% and another reporting a 23% lower chance of violent-crime arrests among participants.
Credible messengers with lived experience are essential to intervention and prevention efforts, according to Dillion Wild, a senior legislative analyst at JLARC.
“When you have someone coming into a community that they don’t have a reputation in, it'd be really hard to make that connection with someone to get them to change their behaviors. It's much more successful when someone can relate to them on a personal level and speak about their experiences.”
V.I.P builds on that approach through partnerships, making the organization a part of a larger ecosystem dedicated to ending gun violence.
Among these partnerships is Hand in Hand, a hospital violence intervention program (HVIP) at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News. The program works by intercepting patients in the immediate aftermath of a shooting, connecting them to community partners such as V.I.P and other resources that help with recovery.
“After you've been a victim of gun violence, one of the first places you're gonna go is the emergency room. Instead of just getting patched up and sent back out, we have an opportunity at the hospital… to almost immediately be able to help curb any retaliatory acts or any future acts of violence,” said Serda, who also serves as the grant coordinator for Hand in Hand. “Without that intervention, the chances of that injured patient coming back re-injured or worse, dead, increase exponentially.”
Other partnerships include non-profits such as Bagz 4 Da Kidz and Stop the Violence 757, which focus on after-school programs, seasonal camps, community engagement, awareness initiatives and direct outreach.
“Bagz for the Kidz started as a simple act of kindness, going into the communities and feeding kids,” said the organization’s president and executive director, Christopher Moore. “As we were feeding children in these communities, one thing that we always didn't attack beyond hunger [was] gun violence. That pushed us into the realm of prevention and intervention.”
These partnerships are essential because they create an interconnected gun violence prevention network throughout some of Virginia’s most at-risk cities, with Bagz 4 Da Kidz based in Hampton and Stop the Violence 757 in Portsmouth.
“They are the tangible resources and immediate response that people immediately need when they experience violence or trauma. Not a long-term blanket resource that they have to apply, wait and hope for,” said Bertrand. “It's really important for people to have a village and community because this work is not easy.”
Funding the Fight
While these organizations create a support network for survivors and communities, the work is not without challenges. Government funding for gun violence prevention and recovery is limited and competitive, leaving some to heavily rely on donations, sponsorships and other unpredictable streams of income.
“Stop the Violence [757] has been around for 12 years. For eight straight years, I funded my own organization out of my pocket by working two or three jobs,” said Monica Atkins, the organization’s executive director.
While the non-profit has since secured funding, the delay shows how long community organizations may operate without sustainable support. Local governments have been addressing some of these gaps.
For instance, Newport News has invested $3.1 million in its Community-Based Violence Prevention Grant Program since fiscal year 2023. V.I.P. received $188,030 through the program.
“I'm thankful that our city manager, mayor and council see the importance of the investment,” said Synethia White, the city’s community violence prevention manager. “As for community-based organizations, Newport News has also sustained their investment.”
States like California provide direct funding for TRCs through specific grant programs such as the Trauma Recovery Center Grant. As of now, Virginia does not provide funding for TRCs, leaving V.I.P to rely on private funding to provide services.
“I used my birthday money to pay a security deposit [for the TRC] and threw a birthday party to fundraise for the first months because there isn't funding yet,” said Bertrand.
He hopes legislators will consider making TRCs eligible for the federal VOCA Victims Services Grant Program, which provides funding through states to “support programs offering direct services to victims of crime.”
Still, there’s also reason to be optimistic about funding for gun violence prevention in the state. A budget amendment that would add $16.1 million over two years for the Safer Communities Program,a bill funding organizations that“address the root causes and conditions of community violence,”is under consideration. If passed, the bill will also add funding eligibility for Newport News, Hampton and Hopewell.
While state funding shows promise, things are not as hopeful at the federal level. Since taking office last year, President Trump has undermined gun violence prevention efforts, including disbanding the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and blocking community-based organizations and non-profits from the Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) grant eligibility.
“There was one organization that lost all of its funding last year when President Trump cut funding for community-based public safety,” said White. “They were our only fully operational secondary intervention organization operating in the city of Newport News. That's a challenge because there have not been discussions about replacing that.”
TRCs that receive government support could also be impacted.
“The funding is unstable because so many of them rely on government funds. This current administration has deprioritized some services to certain communities, and TRCs have seen the impact of that,” said Nelhon. “A lot of states and localities are projecting budget deficits. While not directly impacting TRCs, that money to make up those deficits has to come from somewhere.”
Despite hurdles, community leaders are committed to creating change in their communities by any means necessary.
“When things have to stop due to funding, it makes it hard on the job because you want to do the work and help people,” said Waller. “But when you see the person that you've poured into grow, change and they better themselves, that makes it worth it. Funding or not.”
That work is meant to reach people before violence becomes part of their everyday lives.
Toward the end of our interview, I asked Lydia if she had any hopes for the future. She told me that she “hopes she doesn’t get shot in her right eye.”
Her bright personality made it possible to move past the moment without it feeling too heavy, but upon reflection, it left a pit in my stomach knowing that wish was something a child could have.
Hopefully, through the work of community and survivor-led organizations, no child will ever have to say something like that again.