Ad Hoc Group Against Crime
One Mother’s Future Free of Gun Violence, Starting at the ICU
Winding down for bedtime, Marissa Addison was watching a movie one evening with her daughters. But instead of a peaceful movie night, she became a victim of gun violence when she was mistaken for a relative and shot through the bedroom window. By a miracle, her daughters in the room with her were physically unharmed.
Sustaining multiple bullet wounds, Marissa was taken to the University of Kansas Hospital for the start of an arduous recovery. Apart from doctors and nurses, the first person at her bedside was Eddy Burnett. Eddy is a Community Intervention Specialist with Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, a Kansas City nonprofit that provides supportive services for those impacted by violence and homicide.
“We meet people on the worst day of their lives, after they have survived a violent act — sometimes at a hospital bed, 10 feet from the yellow tape or incarcerated,” explains the President of Ad Hoc, Damon Daniel. “We help our clients through building trust and following through to do what we say we’ll do. We make sure they understand they are not alone.”
Eddy meets with Marissa regularly to discuss her goals and ways she can be supported.
Eddy’s introduction to Marissa was a result of Ad Hoc’s partnership in The University of Kansas Health System and Children’s Mercy Hospital’s REVIVE program, a violence intervention program for young people ages 12 to 24 in Kansas City. Hospital responders like Eddy are notified as soon as a young person is admitted to the ICU with traumatic injuries, and they are the first to the patient’s bedside to assist in planning where they’ll go and what they’ll do next.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around what happened, let alone think about the future,” recalls Marissa. “But Eddy was easy to talk to, and he helped us build a new life.”
Eddy helped Marissa do just that. Ad Hoc got her a safe place to stay in the short term and assisted both logistically and financially in securing her an apartment. Ad Hoc also helped Marissa with job placement and organized counseling for her and her children, all of whom were affected deeply by the tragedy.
“We help our clients start writing a new book, not just a new chapter,” says Damon. Ad Hoc paves this path to hope through both intervention and prevention services, which the organization categorizes as healing and justice, respectively.
In 2025, Enterprise Financial CDE (EFCDE) provided New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing to the nonprofit — critical funding that would set up Ad Hoc’s new Center for Healing and Justice for completion. Administered through the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the NMTC program stimulates economic and community development in highly distressed communities.
In addition to its $7 million NMTC investment, EFCDE provided a discounted annual asset management fee for the loan, which equated to savings of more than $70,000 for the nonprofit.
Scheduled to open in mid-2026, the new space on Kansas City’s East Side will allow Ad Hoc to offer more in-house services, including innovative programs that address the root causes of trauma and violence.
“The Center will be a place where we disrupt generational trauma, and a big piece of this is having a space for healing, where we can walk with individuals and define what healing is for them,” says Damon.
Back on her feet, Marissa checks in with Eddy regularly and considers him family. “I’m so grateful to know that Ad Hoc is there for my family and they are doing everything they can to prevent violence like what I lived through.”