Showing at-risk teens in Philadelphia the gruesome, devastating reality of gun violence is the focus of Temple University Hospital's Cradle to Grave program.

Medical staff bring teens into the hospital's emergency trauma bays and take a scared straight approach in showing them the aftermath of fatal gunshot injuries.

The two-hour experience focuses on how trauma staff attempted to save the life of 16-year-old Lamont Adams, who was shot more than a dozen times on the night of Sept. 23, 2004, near the north Philadelphia residence he shared with his grandmother.

He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died later that night.

Scott Charles, Temple University Hospital's trauma outreach and prevention coordinator and the Cradle to Grave co-founder, will discuss the program's origin and its effectiveness on Tuesday at 8 a.m. at the Booker T. Washington Center, 1720 Holland St.

UPMC Hamot and the Erie violence prevention group Mothers Against Teen Violence are sponsoring the program, which is free and open to the public.

"As soon as we heard about it, we felt we need that here,'' said Sonya Arrington, who founded MATV in the spring of 2010, two months after her son, Stephen Arrington II, was shot to death outside a Buffalo Road convenience store.

"We need to get back to some of the scared straight programs because nothing else is working in our community,'' Arrington said.

"There's a drastic step that really needs to be taken in our community. Our community is in crisis,'' she said. "It's a war out here with these guns. It seems like every time you take one gun off the streets, the next day there's three more.''

Temple University Hospital established Cradle to Grave in 2006 as one of the nation's few hospital-based violence prevention programs.

"Philadelphia obviously is far worse in crime and gun violence than Erie, but if it is putting a dent into what's going on in Philly, hey, it just might work here,'' Arrington said. "Our community is in crisis, and whatever we can do to try to slow the violence down here, we might as well take a chance on it. We have nothing to lose. We're already losing the war on gun violence.''

Tuesday's scheduled two-hour presentation is open to the public, community leaders, law enforcement, ministers, parents, and "anyone who is really concerned about what's going on in our community,'' Arrington said.

In Philadelphia, Cradle to Grave participants experience Adams' life from his birth to the events leading to his shooting death.

Trauma staff recreate and simulate in graphic detail all of the procedures they conducted in an effort to save his life.

"That's very good, because these kids need to understand and see exactly what the consequences are,'' Arrington said.

"By showing them all the graphic details and keeping it real with them, that might change the mindset of some of these young men or young women who are out here playing with guns,'' she said.

Cradle to Grave also aims at taking teens into trauma bays to show the emotional and psychological impacts of gun violence.

"Even if it isn't your family member who was shot and killed, anytime you follow somebody else's family going through a traumatic time like that, it hurts,'' Arrington said. "These kids need to understand that everything they do not only affects them, it affects their family, their friends and the whole community. It's affecting all of us, and something needs to be done. If we can bring this program here, and it helps us, that's what we want to do.''

RON LEONARDI can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail.