The Survivor Connection aims to deepen understanding of gun violence
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Philadelphia, PA — A groundbreaking program launched Wednesday by The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting promises to facilitate more empathetic, ethical and impactful news reporting in the city by bridging a gap between journalists and the survivor community.
The Survivor Connection database will enable journalists to connect with hundreds of community members with lived experience of gun violence in an effort to broaden the narrative beyond traditional police reporting. Gun violence survivor Oronde McClain leads the program.
Since arriving at PCGVR as a community journalist in 2022, McClain, who was injured in a drive-by shooting when he was 10 years old, has acted as a liaison between journalists and community members and has advocated for better gun violence reporting to audiences across the country.
“For far too long, the people, facts and solutions that should be at the core of conversations about this public health crisis have been passed over, ignored, overlooked, and undervalued,” McClain said. “It’s time to amplify the voices of those impacted most.”
Recent research led by PCGVR Director of Research Dr. Jessica Beard found 12 common elements of news reporting that are harmful to individuals, communities and society at large. Among those elements: narratives that do not include the perspectives of community members and/or firearm-injured people.
The Survivor Connection now includes contact information for more than 120 lived-experience experts, including those who have survived firearm injuries and those who have lost loved ones to gun violence. They have already received introductory training around trauma, media literacy and public health prevention strategies.
Their names and other contextual information are categorized by neighborhood on a secure portal available only to approved journalists who have watched an instructional video. Hundreds more experts have expressed interest in the program.
“I know from my conversations with journalists that they don’t want to cause harm,” McClain said. “This tool will help them tell solutions-forward stories that are healing, humanizing, and impactful.”
The Survivor Connection comes at a dynamic time for PCGVR, which recently launched the Association of Gun Violence Reporters; continues to publish a growing body of research; and is building upon a curriculum that includes the Better Gun Violence Reporting toolkit, The Second Trauma documentary, and the Gun Violence Prevention Reporter Certification Workshop.
About PCGVR: The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting collaborates with journalists, researchers and the survivor community to advance more empathetic, ethical and impactful journalism, in Philadelphia and across the United States. Visit: PCGVR.org
Media Inquiries:
Contact The Survivor Connection
Contact The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
Survivor Connection director Oronde McClain previews the web site during a journalism innovation conference at Temple University last fall. Photograph by Kriston Jae Bethel for PCGVR.