b'Giving ValuePreventionA workingalternativeHow Cone Health used a donor fund to help the Greensboro Police Department address violent crime involving teenagers. In just two months.It was early March 2021 when Greensboro Policein something bad, but they werent always involved in Chief Brian James sent an email to 25 local leaders: Come tosomething bad.the ACC Hall of Champions to learn about a different type of community initiative to address violent crimes. Though Dr. Wyatt was more than a year removed from his trauma department duties when James email arrived, he If not for COVID-19 restrictions, James could have filled 2,500remained haunted by violence involving teenagers and seats that night, so great was the interest in curbing violencedecided to attend. in our community. In 2020, the city logged a record 61 homicides, including seven shooting deaths in the first sevenThe same invitation had arrived in the inbox of Michelle days of July. Whats worse, a dozen or more of the yearsSchneider, Cone Healths vice president and chief homicides involved people under age 20, either as victims orphilanthropy officer. But on that night, she was there not alleged killers. For James, a longtime Greensboro cop whoas a fundraiser, but as a Greensboro resident with a strong became chief in January 2020, it was the most sickeninginterest in her neighborhoods crime prevention programs. aspect of his bloody first year leading the department. Schneider grabbed a seat next to her friend and co-worker Dr. Wyattboth eager to hear the chiefs plan.If youre 17 or 18 and youre using a gun, just three or four years ago you were probably in middle school, media outletsAs James began ticking off statistics about violent crime reported James saying at a news conference in Novemberin the city, with particular emphasis on crimes involving 2020, a departure from his typical stoic delivery. How doteenagers, Dr. Wyatt leaned over and whispered to you get from middle school to carrying a gun and willing toSchneider: Ive always wondered what the kids lives must shoot people? be like who I see on my operating table. Because they just come back. I know, she whispered back. We cant possibly Jay Wyatt, MD, Cone Healths chief medical officer, oftenunderstand what they have to deal with.asked himself that question. Maybe a little too often. During his time as Cone Healths chief trauma surgeon and theJames continued: Greensboro needs to provide its teenagers departments director2000 to 2019the shootingwith something to do this summer. Not volunteering, he victims he saw got younger and younger. By the end of hisstressed. Jobs. Jobs that pay real money and inspire them to tenure, he and the other surgeons were operating on four orbecome productive citizens. Jobs that show them that the five teenagers a week. It took a toll on Dr. Wyatt emotionally.work they do matters. That they matter. It also left him with existential questions he couldnt answer. Then James made his announcement: Were going to find I was getting, I wouldnt say clinically depressed, but I was500 jobs for kids in Greensboro this summer. thinking about this so much, he says today. Im puttingSchneider, caught up in the excitement, turned to Dr. Wyatt these kids back together and then theyre just gettingand said, Cone Healths got to be a part of this. replaced by another kid and another kid and another kid. We can say all we want to about drugs and gangs and otherThe whats and the hows and how much would come stuff. But all of these victimsthey were just innocent kidslater. But on that night, Schneider and Dr. Wyatt left the ACC at some point in their lives. They could have been involvedHall of Champions feeling more hopeful than they had in years.8Cone Health Philanthropy'