Delaware
Delaware summit unites state and national leaders in fight to end community violence
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Violence prevention efforts were front and center at Delaware State University this week as End Community Violence Now hosted its first Community Violence Intervention Summit. The event at the university’s Dover campus gathered state and national leaders to celebrate progress and to share research, lived experiences and strategies to end community violence.
“We believe in a collective impact approach to addressing gun violence, particularly community violence,” said Lauren Footman, executive director of End Community Violence Now. “Our role is to not only coordinate our community violence organizations, but to ensure that they have the financial resources and the capacity-building resources to reduce gun violence across the state of Delaware.”
The summit began with a presentation from the Delaware Division of Public Health, revealing data that underscored both progress and ongoing challenges. Delaware ranked 39th in the nation for firearm deaths in 2023, with 124 deaths reported. The state ranked 28th in homicides, recording 55 deaths that year — a decrease from 64 in 2022. But suicide-related deaths rose: Delaware ranked 42nd nationwide, with 144 suicides in 2023, an increase from 130 in 2022.
“For communities of color … there is disproportionate impact of suicide prevention,” Footman said. “Suicide is one of the leading causes of gun violence in the state of Delaware.”
Despite those numbers, Footman’s group continues to lead coordination efforts on violence prevention across the state, including initiatives tied to the Group Violence Intervention strategy, an approach that’s already producing measurable results, particularly in the town of Laurel.
“In Wilmington, we have seen historic declines to prepandemic levels,” Footman said. “In Laurel, there’s been no reported homicides or shootings in 2025, and that’s where we’ve had targeted intervention and coordination.”
The organization hopes to see the intervention strategy expanded into more parts of the state.
“We are looking forward to when the state of Delaware fully expands GVI to Sussex County because it has been so helpful in the Laurel pilot,” she said.
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Ciro Poppiti has transformed himself into Founding Father Caesar Rodney.
Poppiti is a lawyer, National Guardsman, actor and the elected register of wills in Delaware’s New Castle County — the same office Rodney once held in his county.
On June 12 and 13, Poppiti will ride horseback from Delaware to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, retracing Rodney’s historic 1776 journey that helped secure support for American independence.
Rodney raced through a storm after learning at midnight that he needed to break a tie in Delaware’s delegation on the vote for independence from England.
“You’ve got to get to Philadelphia by three o’clock, four o’clock the next day,” Poppiti said while portraying Rodney. “The gavel is coming in otherwise everything you have done is now destroyed.”
Rodney famously wore a green scarf to hide a cancerous formation on his face.
While Rodney rode horse trails from Dover to Philadelphia, Poppiti’s route will follow modern roads, including Route 13 through Claymont and Delaware County before heading up Passyunk Avenue to Independence Hall.
Poppiti said the ride is taking place in June because the actual anniversary in early July will coincide with World Cup events in Philadelphia.
Well-trained Amish horses and a buggy will accompany the ride to help make the trip safer on busy modern roads.
Rodney remains a controversial figure for some because his family owned slaves on their Kent County farm.
During protests following George Floyd’s death in 2020, Rodney’s statue was removed from Rodney Square in Wilmington. The statue is now displayed in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.
“We have critics, critics who want to damn Caesar Rodney because he had slaves and they should,” Poppiti said. “We embrace those who are critical of Rodney because those who are critical of him are helping us and they’re fulfilling our mission. Our mission is to tell the whole story warts and all and to expose the fact that it was all people of all colors that helped make the greatest upset in world history happen.”
More information about the reenactment ride, including related events such as a gala and concert, is available at 250ride.org.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.
“I grow old gracefully,” said Susan Young Browne, who just received permission to keep driving until 115 years old.
That’s a testament to Browne enduring aptitude (and attitude) for life; having recently celebrated her 108th Birthday at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover, Delaware.
Browne was in Delaware in 1918 during Segregation where she worked on a farm with her family sans water or electricity. She would eventually attend Delaware State College for Colored Students, today known as Delaware State University, and graduate in 1945, going on to teach in a one-room school house.
Married twice, she enjoys the company of a clan of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Nowadays, she can be found three times a work at the Modern Maturity Center where she enjoys group exercise classes; staying active is a key to that graceful aging she mentioned.
“When I get up in the morning, I have an exercise routine that I’ve been doing for the last 20 years,” she said. “When I retired and I walked around that classroom for 30 years, I am not going to sit down.”
SPRITELY ELDERS:
130 people attended her birthday party, including the Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, where she was gifted a parking spot right in front of the building reserved for those 100 years or older.
That’s important, because as Ms. Browne told those assembled to celebrate her life, the state had just reissued her driver’s license until 2033.
WATCH the story below from CBS News…
SHARE Ms. Susan Brown With Your Friends Who Need a Little Inspiration…
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