About ARCvi
ARCvi is a Temple University initiative originally launched in collaboration with the Public Policy Lab in the College of Liberal Arts with funding from the Stoneleigh Foundation and currently supported by the Green Family Foundation and in-kind resources from Temple University. The website was created to provide community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs with curated tools and practical guidance.
ARCvi’s Resource Collections were developed with direct input from CVI programs across Philadelphia, as well as guidance from ARCvi’s Advisory Board. These conversations and a detailed needs assessment helped identify the topics, questions, and types of practical resources that programs considered most useful for strengthening their work. The collections continue to evolve as the field changes and as practitioners and partners identify new needs.
Through collaboration with practitioners and experts, ARCvi helps programs build stronger evaluation practices, more sustainable funding strategies, and greater long-term impact.
The ARCvi Team
Caterina Roman
Caterina G. Roman, PhD, is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University and the founder and director of ARCvi. Before joining Temple in 2008, she spent nearly two decades at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. She considers herself a health criminologist; her research focuses on community violence, prisoner reintegration, victimization, program evaluation, and the use of data (and integrated data!) and evidence to strengthen public safety efforts and community wellbeing. She created and leads ARCvi to make research, evaluation tools, and practical capacity-building resources more accessible to community-based organizations working to reduce violence. Find out more about her community-engaged research at caterinaroman.com or on Substack, where she writes about crime and justice policy.
Franklin Moreno
Franklin Moreno joined Temple University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Public Policy Lab in 2023 as a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow. As part of the core team that developed ARCvi, he led the needs assessment and helped ensure the resource hub reflected the priorities of community-based violence intervention organizations. He later continued this work as a Research Professor through the Green Family Foundation Violence Prevention Fellowship.
Dr. Moreno previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rutgers University’s Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. He earned his PhD in Education, with a concentration in Human Development, from the University of California, Berkeley, where his dissertation examined the development of youth exposed to gang violence in Honduras. His research focuses on how violence, gangs, law enforcement, families, communities, and public policy shape children’s and adolescents’ development across local and international settings.
Dr. Moreno has now begun his tenure-track faculty position at California State University, Long Beach, in the College of Health & Human Services’ Child and Families Studies program.
Nicholas Gish
Nicholas Gish is the web designer and developer for ARCvi. He holds a Master’s in Information Science and a Bachelor’s in Music, both from Louisiana State University, where he returns in fall 2026 to pursue a Master’s in Music Composition. His experience as a web designer and developer spans civil service, media companies, large financial institutions, and universities.
ARCvi Advisory Committee Members
Tobi Downing
Tobi Downing is the Director of the Gun Violence Reduction Initiatives at the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. She works directly with community-based organizations and policymakers on improving access and equity in CVI grantmaking. Tobi’s work includes providing consultation and resources on state and non-state funding, grantmaking, and capacity-building to organizations. She has over 20 years of experience working with nonprofit community-based organizations, including with two state coalitions in Pennsylvania and New York, as well as serving victims of violent crimes, including sexual assault and domestic violence. Tobi holds a Bachelor in Journalism, and a Master in Human Services Management, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Education and Educational Leadership.
Ericka Gaines
Ericka Gaines is the Director of Community Empowerment at the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia. She works directly with residents, youth, grassroots organizations, and public and private stakeholders in providing organizations strategic leadership, overseeing capacity-building support, partnership development, and promoting community engagement and empowerment. She has over 30 years of experience in prevention and human services. Ericka is the former Co-Director and Director of Prevention at Central Division Victim Services (CDVS), where she provided comprehensive support to victims of crime in Philadelphia’s 22nd and 9th Police Districts—including oversight of the 37th Ward Communities That Care (CTC) Coalition. Ericka holds a Master in Human Services and is a member of the prestigious Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society of Social Sciences.
Colin Hammar
Colin Hammar is Associate Director of the Public Policy Lab and the Office of Community Engagement in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. A sociologist by training, his research has focused on demography, gender/sexuality, and public policy. Colin holds a PhD in Sociology.
Bernadette Callahan Hohl
Bernadette Callahan Hohl, PhD, MPH, is a Senior Research Investigator at the Penn Injury Science Center and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Her research integrates community voice with epidemiologic and qualitative methods to identify and address the root causes of community violence, with a focus on communities disproportionately affected by economic, social, and structural disadvantage. Through deep collaboration with community members, city agencies, and national experts, Dr. Hohl works to build a strong evidence base for injury and violence prevention and implement high impact policies and programs grounded in health equity and racial justice.
Tyrone G. Morris
Tyrone G. Morris, MSW, is an experienced social worker and social entrepreneur with more than 20 years of direct practice, training, and administrative experience serving children and families in the Philadelphia area. He founded Committed Community Mentors, Inc. to provide one-on-one mentoring and family support for young people whose needs are often overlooked by traditional behavioral health systems. Tyrone also serves as a social work field instructor for several local universities, supervising students who gain practice experience as mentors. Through Committed Community Mentors, he has developed partnerships with schools, residential programs, family decision-making initiatives, and homelessness-prevention organizations to provide mentoring, restorative circles, staff training, outreach, and family support.
Claire Pope
Claire Pope is the Assistant Director of Grants Management for University College, Continuing Education and Program Development at Temple University. She works in finding and sustaining resources and partnerships to drive many of the university’s non-credit, continuing education, capacity building, and community outreach initiatives. Claire has years of experience as a social worker managing workforce development, violence prevention, food justice, housing justice, and environmental justice initiatives. She is the former Director of Community Partnerships for the Lenfest Center for Community Workforce Partnerships and the Program Manager for the Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative at Temple University. Claire holds a Master in Social Work.