Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • What happens when crime victims and offenders meet? Outagamie County is finding out.

    The Outagamie County Youth and Family Services agency makes restorative justice dialogue available to the victims of crimes committed by juveniles. After preparation with a trained mediator, the two parties meet to discuss the harm suffered by a victim and why a young person committed the offense. Both can be helped through a face-to-face conversation. The county is now considering expanding the program to adults.

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  • These Philadelphians Created an App to Prevent Gun Violence

    Philly Truce is a mobile app that lets people in crisis ask for help from volunteer conflict mediators without involving the police. The app connects people to social services and to volunteers who can help ensure that a personal conflict does not turn violent. Two Philadelphia men with a modest investment launched the app in May 2021. Hundreds already have used it to de-escalate disputes or to volunteer to join the effort to reduce violence. The founders hope to expand the project to other cities.

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  • Solidarité : des sans abri hébergés dans des entreprises

    Les Bureaux du Coeur est une association qui recrute des entreprises pour proposer leurs bureaux comme hébergement temporaire à des personnes en situation de précarité. Cela permet aux clients de se concentrer sur leur vie professionnelle et leur réinsertion.

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  • Anti-violence programs are working. But can they make a dent in Chicago's gun violence?

    Chicago is home to multiple street-outreach programs that target the people most likely to be shot or to shoot others, and that provide them with social services that keep them and others in their network safe. Programs like READI, CRED, and CP4P have shown strong results in studies of their ability to help people get access to education and jobs while avoiding arrest or injury. But community violence in Chicago is so entrenched that the existing programs lack the scale and structure to make meaningful reductions in Chicago's street violence.

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  • Taking Mental Health Crises Out of Police Hands

    Until Oakland joins the list of cities sending counselors and social workers on emergency calls concerning mental health crises, a grassroots program called Mental Health First is diverting a small number of emergencies from police involvement to a community-based response. Hundreds of volunteers, many with their own experiences with mental illness and crises, answer dozens of calls per month in which they de-escalate, counsel, and direct people to needed services – all without the threat that a misunderstood person could be harmed by police untrained in correctly handling such crises.

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  • Don't Call the Police

    DontCallThePolice.com went online at the height of the 2020 social justice protests to give people a list of resources when they need help and might otherwise default to calling the police. The site is a directory of services in 80 cities, such as mental health care, substance use treatment, and services for youth and elders. The site averages about 20,000 visits per month as its existence becomes known. Information is crowdsourced.

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  • To Fight Rising Murder Rate, More Cities Find, Mentor and Pay Likely Shooters

    Advance Peace Fresno tries to turn youth away from violence through mentoring, job training, and by paying them a monthly stipend of up to $1,000 if they hit certain benchmarks in their rehabilitation. The program has recruited 19 young people for its fellowships, following a model that is associated with violence declines in Richmond and Sacramento, and is spreading to multiple other cities. Opponents of the stipends say the agency should not pay people to obey the law. But Advance Peace's strategy is based on using the promise of legitimate income to keep people engaged.

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  • Sedgwick County looks to San Antonio for mental health solutions

    Since the early 2000s, when its overcrowded jail led to a decision to jail fewer people instead of adding more cells, Bexar County, Texas, has provided comprehensive help to people likely to end up jailed if social and health services are lacking: people experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. A crisis center gives police and residents a place to bring people needing help other than an emergency room or jail. The Haven for Hope is a campus offering an array of services and shelter. Homelessness and the jail population are both way down.

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  • The Bronx tries new way to cure violence as US shootings surge

    Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence is a city-funded crew of "violence interrupters," former gang members or the formerly incarcerated who have enough street credibility to de-escalate disputes in ways the police often cannot. Founded in 2014, BRAG works in three "hot" zones, two of which have gone murder-free for more than five years. Such groups, using the Cure Violence public-health approach to gun-violence reduction, occupy an "uneasy niche in public safety" between the streets and police.

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  • Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

    Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

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