Uniting to Prevent Targeted Violence
 
Uniting to Prevent Targeted Violence (UPTV) is a non-partisan program that brings together 28 Pennsylvanians, known as Uniters, in Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, and York Counties to work across divides to prevent targeted violence. 

​UPTV kicked off in Gettysburg on February 18, 2023 and will run through August 2024. 

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UPTV Program Goals:
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1. Build relationships across ideological, racial, generational, and geographic divides
2. Implement projects in partnership with social service organizations that reduce risks of targeted violence 
3. Strengthen local Threat Assessment and Management teams 
   
4. Raise our communities' awareness of targeted violence​​​​

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Program Leadership
​UPTV is led by a team of seven people who live and work in Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, and York Counties. The program will be implemented by Urban Rural Action, a national grassroots movement that brings Americans together across divides to tackle our country's most urgent challenges, in collaboration with four local partner organizations:​

• CONTACT Helpline, a 24-hour, 7 days-a-week, listening, health and human service information and referral service;
• Just for Today Recovery & Veteran's Support Services, which offers recovery and reentry and veterans programs;
• Mediation Services of Adams County, which provides conflict resolution and transformative mediation services; and
• Suicide Prevention of York, which empowers communities to prevent suicide.

We also work closely with our media literacy partner, News Literacy Project, which has shared with us the skills needed to be smart consumers of news and engage productively in our communities.

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The Pennsylvania Uniters Cohort

The 28 Pennsylvania Uniters in the program live and/or work in Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, and York counties. The group includes 13 people who are active members of a faith community, six veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, six people with experience working in the criminal legal system, four formerly incarcerated individuals, three mental or behavioral health professionals, and a mayor. 

Eleven Uniters say their political views are left of center; nine are right of center; and eight fall “squarely in the middle.” Nearly half of the group identifies as Black, Hispanic, Asian-American, or multi-racial; there is a roughly even split between people who have four-year college degrees and those who do not.

Information Page for Uniters

Targeted Violence Prevention Resources Page

Public Statements by Uniters

This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, opportunity number DHS-22-TTP-132-00-01.