Amory-Powell does what doctors and surgeons have neither the expertise nor the time for. They are paid to concern themselves with patients’ physical health. She assesses the social aspect of violence. As a hospital responder with Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI), Amory-Powell is stationed at King’s County Hospital and is informed of any shooting or stabbing victim who enters the hospital. She visits the victims and tries to figure out how they were injured.

A hospital responder is someone who follows up with a victim of a gunshot wound, a stabbing, or any kind of assault. The responder is there to make sure that when a person leaves the hospital, they are not going back to a dangerous environment. (They also try to keep one incident of violence from leading to more. Tislam Milliner, a hospital responder from Man Up! Inc., tells stories of scouting out emergency waiting rooms, looking for friends of victims who might be antsy for revenge.) The responder coordinates with the police if they think that the situation could breed further violence. But most importantly, they connect the victims and their families with resources and services they may not know how to find. They set the victims up with counseling, refer them to jobs, and help them fill out the applications. They try to get them IDs, if they have none. If the victim has no place to sleep, they try to find them a shelter.

“We can give them options,” Amory-Powell said.

But, what is really important is that a responder can talk to victims on their level. This is why hospital responder organizations hire people who have grown up in the high-crime areas they serve.

Amory-Powell grew up in East Flatbush, a self-described truant, running with a tough group of girls. She said her boyfriend when she was a teenager went to jail for holding up cab drivers at gunpoint. She herself has been robbed at gunpoint.

“You live at Flatbush back then, walking down certain streets, you never knew,” she said. “It could come at any time.”

But, Amory-Powell said, her greatest strength as a hospital responder is her ability to empathize with the family members of a victim. She sees herself as more equipped to understand what they need than a doctor or therapist who has never been in their shoes.

“[Hospital responders] are not coming in unfamiliar with what goes on here,” said Linnea Ashley, the manager of the National Network of Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs). There are currently 28 nationwide, with three currently in New York and two more opening soon (one at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx and the other at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, according to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation).* These are publicly funded programs, overseen by the cities they’re in.

“These are people who, in the mess of medical jargon, worried parents, and friends looking for revenge, will look a patient in the eyes and say, ‘Let's make sure that you are safe,’” Ashley said. Surprisingly, according to Ashley, community violence is tough to rally empathy for.