The Richmond community continues to look for answers and solutions to the shocking multiple shooting that claimed the lives of Sharnez Hill, 30, and her 3-month-old daughter, Neziah, last week in the courtyard of a South Richmond apartment complex where children and families were enjoying the evening air.

Police said a barrage of bullets from an assault rifle and two handguns were fired by two groups of gunmen shooting at one another across the courtyard at the Belt Atlantic Apartments on April 27. The Hills and other bystanders were struck in the crossfire, including an 11-year-old Westover Hills Elementary School student, a 15-year-old from George Wythe High School and a 29-year-old woman.

While the three wounded were last listed in stable condition at a local hospital, the trauma of the tragedy remains and touches all of us. Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said this week that 40 Richmond Public Schools students have been shot during the past year.

That should not be Richmond’s normal, said Richmond Police Chief Gerald M. Smith. The same all-out battle waged against COVID-19 in our community should be directed against gun violence, Mr. Kamras suggested.

We strongly agree.

For far too long, the Richmond community has been engulfed by waves of gun violence that are met with sorrow, tears, prayer vigils, balloon releases and pleas for change, including tougher gun laws, greater police presence and engagement from people to make neighborhoods safer.

But these Band-Aid solutions are just that and have not made enough of an impact. Stopping the violence and creating real change will take the same concerted effort mounted — and resources deployed — to fight the coronavirus. And like the fight against COVID-19, the efforts to combat violence must be made by all sectors of the community, not just police. The public health and mental health sectors, schools, businesses, recreation and government and private sectors all must get involved.

The violence and other problems we are seeing now are symptoms of years and years of people being cut off from things that make for healthy communities, said Daryl V. Fraser, a licensed clinical social worker and associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Social Work.

Mr. Fraser is a former president of the Richmond Association of Black Social Workers.

The circumstances many people in Richmond are living in are not “normal,” with a consistent lack of resources and opportunity many of us take for granted. For instance, he said, many families live in situations of constant poverty, high unemployment, food and housing insecurity and lack of access to quality education.

The question becomes why do children have access to guns and firearms, but not to grocery stores, healthy food and education, he said. What brings us to this sober moment, he added, is the realization that we should have been doing some things all along that may have prevented the latest tragedy.

As the trauma compounds, he pointed out, hurt people hurt people.

“While we don’t know each person’s circumstance, we know everyone wants to be seen, to be respected, to have their humanity recognized,” Mr. Fraser said. A disconnect from self and community feeds into the cycle of violence.

We believe, like others, there is no simple solution to stemming the violence that plagues our city. But a better path can be forged by putting into place a system of comprehensive response that can work on various components simultaneously, including making sure basic needs are met, destigmatizing and prioritizing mental health, promoting healing circles and conflict resolution skills, helping people find jobs and working to ensure housing and food security.

Sadly, we cannot give Ms. Hill and her infant their lives back. But step by step, piece by piece, we can work to shore up the lives of the children and families caught in the crossfire at the apartment complex last week, and those swept up in the violence that racks our communities from day to day.

We can help heal the trauma of the wounded, repair the scars on our psyche and that of the city and work to ensure the humanity of everyone through both policy and practice. And with a collective effort, we can forge a path toward change.