For a city that once held the highest murder rate in the country in the early 1990s, reducing gun violence has been a central focus of city leaders for the past quarter of a century.
Last year, Gary recorded 28 homicides, the city’s lowest total in 55 years. The drop was accompanied by a nearly 24% reduction in nonfatal shootings. That marks a sharp decline from its nation-topping total of 134 homicides in 1993.
It’s progress that caught the attention of Cities United, a national nonprofit that works with more than 130 cities to reduce gun violence among young Black men and boys. On Wednesday, the organization made Gary a stop on its “Leading the Way Tour,” convening an unlikely mix of voices, from a 75-year-old lifelong resident to young adults, business owners, university students, carpenters and elected officials, to take stock of what’s working and what still needs to change.
“In 2025, the city of Gary invested in our police department and achieved its lowest homicide rate in 55 years,” Mayor Eddie Melton said. “While we are incredibly proud of these historic milestones, our work is far from over. Sustaining this momentum requires us to move beyond traditional enforcement and build an ecosystem rooted in community and opportunity.”
Cities United, founded in 2011, focuses on what it calls a “comprehensive public safety ecosystem” that goes beyond policing to include violence interruption, street outreach, hospital-based intervention, family support, and coordinated crisis response. The organization’s “Leading the Way Tour” is designed to strengthen those efforts in cities across the country.
“The Leading the Way Tour reflects our commitment to redefining public safety by strengthening a comprehensive ecosystem grounded in partnership, shared accountability, and trust,” said Anthony D. Smith, executive director of Cities United. “This work continues to prove that transformation is not only possible, but already in motion.”
One of the programs highlighted during Wednesday’s meeting was S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violence Everywhere), which serves a spectrum of youth, including those in a high-risk program with gun charges. It has enrolled 103 participants and seen only a 10% recidivism rate among those who completed it.
For Donnavon Mathews, a 22-year-old Gary resident, the meeting itself was a revelation.
“We have way more resources than we realize,” he said. “We just don’t have the outreach or awareness to know about them.”
That awareness gap was a recurring theme. During a group activity, participants noted that weak community outreach, limited knowledge of available services, and the outsized influence of social media — which can amplify both positive messages and the glamorization of violence — remain significant obstacles.
“We feel like your environment is what you’re going to grow up to be. You are your environment,” said Julius Jones, a recent West Side Leadership Academy graduate.
“Whatever’s around you, that’s what you kind of turn out to be,” Jones said. “If you around violence or you around people that are doing wrong things, that’s kind of what it turn into, and that’s what you grow up seeing, and that’s what you grow up in life, that it kind of make you turn into that, or kind of want to be that, or be around it. You tend to draw to it, because that’s all you know.”
The meeting also coincided with National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Participants emphasized that young people aren’t just the target of these programs — they’re essential to designing them.
“Youth are not just participants, but powerful agents of change,” said Michael A. McGee, founder of Project Outreach & Prevention, a Northwest Indiana youth-focused violence prevention organization.
“When youth leaders are at the table, they bring credibility, cultural insight, and firsthand knowledge of the root causes of violence, including trauma, peer dynamics, community pressures, and systemic barriers,” McGee said. “Their voices help ensure that interventions are relevant, trusted, and more likely to succeed.”
Funding remains a persistent challenge. Participants flagged the loss of federal dollars, community backlash, and political headwinds as ongoing threats that echo across Cities United’s national network, which has faced a more difficult funding environment in recent years.
Following the Gary stop, Cities United plans to conduct an internal assessment of the city’s public safety ecosystem, produce a written report with findings and recommended next steps, and share it with Gary stakeholders.
“Our major thing that we have [is] communication with the people,” said Marcus Steele Jr., 23, a youth development professional with the Boys & Girls Club of Northwest Indiana. “It’s a lot of things that we do have, but we aren’t hearing about it or we’re hearing about it too late. So we have a slight disconnect.”
With Cities United’s assessment report on the way and National Youth Violence Prevention Week as a backdrop, Gary’s momentum now faces its next test of turning a historic drop in homicides into a durable, communitywide commitment. Melton says the city is ready.
“We are listening, learning, and leading alongside the very people we serve,” he said.
