Baltimore Ravens, University of Maryland Medical System and Shock Trauma Convene Violence Prevention Summit, Building on the City’s Historic Progress

As Baltimore continues to experience historic declines in violent crime, hundreds of the city's top leaders from across healthcare, public safety, government, philanthropy and grassroots community organizations gathered today at M&T Bank Stadium for Baltimore Together: A Summit on Violence Prevention, a citywide effort to strengthen partnerships and advance solutions that address the root causes of violence.

Hosted by the Baltimore Ravens, the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), the University of Maryland Medical Center and its R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, the summit brings together experts and advocates committed to sustaining Baltimore's remarkable progress on violent crime reduction while accelerating efforts to create safer, healthier communities across the city and beyond.

The day-long event features some of the nation's most prominent voices on community-led violence reduction strategies, including panel discussions led by the business, academic, civic and community leaders behind the powerful partnerships that are delivering positive results.

Notable speakers and panelists for the day include Thomas Abt, JD, Associate Research Professor and Founding Director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction at the University of Maryland; City of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott; Shock Trauma Physician-in-Chief, Thomas Scalea, MD; Shock Trauma Vice President Kristie Snedeker, DPT; Ivan Bates, State's Attorney for Baltimore City; Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley; Heather Darney, Vice President of Community Relations for the Baltimore Ravens; Nadine Finigan-Carr, Executive Director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Center for Violence Prevention, and experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins Medicine, MedStar Health, the Maryland Center for Firearm Violence Prevention and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE)

"Reducing gun violence is some of the most impactful work being done across our nation. It is life-saving work, and the progress here in Baltimore has been simply phenomenal," said Ravens president Sashi Brown. "The Ravens have a platform and a responsibility to shine a light on the frontline organizations driving meaningful change. We are proud to support partners who are advancing prevention, promoting healing and expanding opportunities for young people and families in Baltimore and beyond."

The event comes amid encouraging trends - Baltimore has recorded significant reductions in homicides and non-fatal shootings, with 2025 marking one of the lowest homicide totals in nearly five decades. Recent data shows a 60% reduction in homicides between 2022 and 2025, with non-fatal shootings down by 50%, reflecting the impact of coordinated efforts among community groups, public agencies and healthcare partners.

"Today's gathering reflects a simple but powerful truth: progress is possible when communities work together," said Mohan Suntha, MD, president and chief executive officer of the University of Maryland Medical System. "Baltimore is safer today than it was just a few years ago, and that progress belongs to the many organizations, leaders and residents who have dedicated themselves to creating change. At the same time, every act of violence still carries a profound human cost, and our work is far from finished."

The summit also marks a new milestone in funding to advance a coordinated, actionable roadmap for further violence reduction. The Baltimore Ravens have announced a $1 million investment in Baltimore's future through grants to six organizations all dedicated to pushing forward innovative, evidence-based solutions to reduce violence and improve outcomes for individuals, families and communities.

Shock Trauma is among the grant recipients. The Ravens' generous support has allowed the center to host collaborative forums, such as the Baltimore Together Summit, which have fostered stronger alignment of goals and helped forge partnerships that leverage each organization's unique strengths, perspectives and expertise toward long-term solutions.

This important leadership role builds on Shock Trauma's longstanding commitment to injury prevention. Through impactful programs, including its renowned Violence Prevention Program, Saving Maryland's At-Risk Teens program (SMART), signature statewide Stop the Bleed® program and its recently established Trauma Recovery Clinic, Shock Trauma is working to break the cycle of violence, prevent readmissions, support long-term recovery and foster a culture of injury prevention across Maryland.

While the summit celebrates measurable progress, its goal is to bring more collective focus to the impact violence continues to have on families and neighborhoods throughout Baltimore and across Maryland.

As the state's highest volume trauma center and only its only primary adult resource center (PARC) - the highest level of trauma care - last year, 18% of Shock Trauma admissions were the result of violence. Adding admissions to UMMS' Level II trauma center at the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Prince George's County, 500 patients were treated for gunshot wounds across the two centers. Encouragingly, that data point represents a 36% decrease from two years ago.

"These injuries should not happen - they are 100% preventable," said Dr. Scalea, who is also System Chief for Critical Care Services at the University of Maryland Medical System and the Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We are very good at what we do - 95% of our patients at Shock Trauma survive. But our commitment to saving lives extends beyond our ORs, we want to stop these senseless injuries before they happen."

"I'm extremely heartened by the significant downward trend in fatal violence," Dr. Scalea added. "Any instance we can avoid telling a family they've lost their loved one to violence is a very meaningful win for all. But there is still more work ahead. I'm grateful to the Baltimore Ravens for recognizing both the urgency and complexity of this challenge and making a generous investment to support violence prevention and intervention efforts."

For the organizers of Baltimore Together, it's important that the day ends with a responsive, equitable and actionable plan forward.

"Every person in the room has the unique opportunity to be part of a collective conversation that aims to deepen our understanding of what's working, where gaps remain, and what steps must be taken to sustain and accelerate the recent gains," said Snedeker. "We have evidence that progress is achievable. We have momentum. Most importantly, we have the right people at the table. We are grateful for the Ravens' support which has allowed us the opportunity to bring people together in a year-long effort to shape this summit. Now we must identify where we can move forward together."

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high-quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore, who educate the state's future health care professionals. UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System's anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org.

About the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland was the first fully-integrated trauma center in the world and remains at the epicenter for trauma research, patient care and teaching, both nationally and internationally today. Shock Trauma is where the "golden hour" concept of trauma was born and where many lifesaving practices in modern trauma medicine were pioneered. Shock Trauma is also at the heart of the Maryland's unparalleled Emergency Medical Service System. Learn more about Shock Trauma.

About the University of Maryland Medical Center

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is comprised of two hospital campuses in Baltimore: the 800-bed flagship institution of the 11-hospital University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and the 200-bed UMMC Midtown Campus. Both campuses are academic medical centers for training physicians and health professionals and for pursuing research and innovation to improve health. UMMC's downtown campus is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurosciences, advanced cardiovascular care, and women's and children's health, and has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country. All physicians on staff at the downtown campus are clinical faculty physicians of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The UMMC Midtown Campus medical staff is predominately faculty physicians specializing in a wide spectrum of medical and surgical subspecialties, primary care for adults and children and behavioral health. UMMC Midtown has been a teaching hospital for 140 years and is located one mile away from the downtown campus. For more information, visit www.umm.edu.