For Tyrique Glasgow, the fight to prevent gun violence is personal.
As a survivor of gun violence and founder of the Young Chances Foundation, Tyrique has spent years working with young people, families, and communities affected by violence. Now, he is bringing that experience into the world of research.
Tyrique is a co-author of a new research study titled “It is nice, but it can’t keep me safe”: perspectives on the effectiveness of hospital-based violence intervention programs. The study was published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, a journal published by BMJ Group.
The study looks at an important question: Are hospital-based violence intervention programs really giving gun violence survivors the support they need to stay safe and rebuild their lives?
For Tyrique, answering that question meant making sure the voices of survivors were heard.
Bringing Lived Experience to the Research
Tyrique was not simply interviewed or featured in the study. He helped conduct the research.
He was part of the three-person team that analyzed interviews for the study. Tyrique and another member of that team also brought personal experience as survivors of gun violence.
Tyrique helped develop the study, analyze the information collected from participants, write the original article, and review and edit the final paper.
His role shows why lived experience is so important in research about community violence.
People who have lived through gun violence understand things that numbers and statistics alone cannot explain. They understand the fear, trauma, relationships, neighborhood conditions, and daily decisions that can affect whether someone feels safe after surviving a shooting.
That experience can help researchers ask better questions and better understand the answers.
“It’s Nice, But It Can’t Keep Me Safe”
The study focused on Black men who survived gunshot wounds and received services from hospital-based violence intervention programs, also known as HVIPs.
These programs are designed to help people after a violent injury. Services can include counseling, mentoring, transportation, connections to community resources, education, and housing support.
Many survivors in the study appreciated the people who worked with them and the help they received.
But they also pointed out a serious problem.
One participant explained:
“It’s nice … but it can’t keep me safe.”
That statement became the title of the study because it captures one of its biggest findings.
Survivors appreciated receiving help, but many did not believe the services made them safer once they returned to their communities.
What Survivors Said They Really Need
The study found that preventing another shooting is much more complicated than helping someone while they are in the hospital.
Many survivors return to the same neighborhoods and conditions they lived in before they were shot. Some return to places where they may still be in danger.
Participants talked about the need for safe housing, financial help, food, medical supplies, transportation, mental health support, and stronger connections to community organizations.
For some survivors, having a safe place to live after leaving the hospital could make a major difference.
The study also found that survivors, their families, and program staff did not believe hospital programs alone could solve the larger problems connected to gun violence.
Those problems can include poverty, lack of resources, housing challenges, and years of limited investment in communities.
You Have to “Go to the Violence”
Another powerful message came from a survivor who challenged violence prevention programs to “go to the violence.”
In other words, the work cannot stop at the hospital doors.
Violence prevention programs need to understand what is happening in the neighborhoods where survivors actually live.
They need relationships with people who know those communities.
They need to understand the conflicts, challenges, resources, and people that can affect a survivor once that person returns home.
This is where community-based organizations can make a real difference.
Hospitals and Communities Working Together
One of the study’s strongest recommendations is for hospitals to build better relationships with community organizations.
Hospitals can provide medical treatment and important support after someone is injured. But community organizations often have something hospitals may not have: long-term relationships with the neighborhoods they serve.
Community leaders may know the families, schools, neighborhood organizations, local resources, and challenges that affect a survivor’s daily life.
The research suggests that bringing these two worlds together could provide survivors with stronger support.
Instead of asking hospitals or community organizations to solve the problem alone, they can work together.
This approach connects closely with the work Tyrique has been doing through the Young Chances Foundation in Philadelphia.
Listening to the People Closest to the Problem
The research also challenges the way we think about success in violence prevention.
Traditionally, a program might be considered successful if a survivor is not shot again or does not retaliate against someone.
But the survivors interviewed for this study said their decisions were often influenced by many things that had nothing to do with the hospital program.
That means success should be about more than whether someone returns to the hospital with another gunshot wound.
It should also consider whether survivors have the support they need to heal, find stability, feel safe, support their families, and move forward with their lives.
Most importantly, survivors should have a voice in deciding what that support looks like.
Turning Experience Into Action
Tyrique’s role in this research is an important part of his journey.
He has experienced gun violence himself. He has also spent years working in communities affected by it.
Now, that experience is helping shape published research about how violence prevention programs can better serve survivors.
Tyrique’s contribution to the study sends a simple but powerful message:
People closest to the problem should be part of creating the solution.
Survivors should not only be asked to share their stories. Their knowledge and experiences should help shape programs, research, and policies designed to serve them.
That is exactly what Tyrique brought to this study.
He helped connect research with real-life experience and brought a community voice into a conversation that can influence how survivors of gun violence are supported in the future.
For Tyrique, this work is another way to turn lived experience into action—and action into lasting change.
About the Study
“It is nice, but it can’t keep me safe”: perspectives on the effectiveness of hospital-based violence intervention programs was published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open in July 2026.
The research included 62 interviews involving 43 participants. Researchers spoke with Black men who survived gunshot wounds and participated in hospital-based violence intervention programs, as well as their loved ones and program staff.
The study found three major concerns: programs often did not make survivors feel safer, had limited impact on retaliatory violence, and needed stronger partnerships with communities.
Authors: William Wical, Tyrique Glasgow, Thomas Williams, Kathryn Bocanegra, Bethany L. Strong, Cassandra Crifasi, Nazsa Baker, Angel Boulware, and Joseph Richardson.
Read the full study in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open →
Learn more about Tyrique Glasgow, his story, community leadership, advocacy, and speaking at TyriqueGlasgow.com.