Can basketball reduce gun violence? It did in Richmond, Virginia.

The Prince George's County Police Athletic League uses free, officer-led sports programs like Connect Boxing to build trust between youth and law enforcement while reducing juvenile delinquency. Participants reported improved grades, stronger discipline, and healthier decision-making skills.

By taking up boxing, Michigan’s youth learn to diffuse violence and cope with their stressors. Kalamazoo Eastside Boxing provides structure, mentorship, and a social outlet for disadvantaged and troubled youth across Michigan. In addition to keeping young people off of the streets, being a part of the boxing club helps to improve their sense of self-worth.

Some local programs see youth employment as more than just a workforce development issue. They also view jobs as a way to offer stability to young people, especially those from Cleveland area communities with high violence rates. The research bears them out. These are the voices of some of the voices speaking in favor of more jobs and less violence.

The Police Athletic League connects local police officers with youth to fill some of their free time playing sports. The program uses mentorship and lessons learned from athletics to prevent juvenile crime and violence.

Choose 180 channels Seattle-area young people into an alternative to court and jail when they commit relatively minor offenses. This "offramp" from the traditional justice system, serving a disproportionately Black and brown clientele, helped 400 clients in 2019, 87% of whom did not commit new offenses. Research shows such diversion programs have a better track record for preventing future crimes. A Choose 180 "sentence" comes in the form of a workshop introducing young people to mentors and giving them a chance at the stability and frame of mind they need to seek more lasting change in their lives.

Since 2015, Project Reset has diverted potential criminal cases to programs that change behaviors without imposing punishment or staining people's records with criminal convictions. Art classes, behavioral therapy, and restorative dialogue have made 16- and 17-year-olds in the program significantly less likely to commit new offenses, while 98% of those admitted to the program have completed it. Offered in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx, the program helped the Manhattan district attorney nearly cut in half the number of prosecutions of low-level misdemeanors and violations.

Surfing lessons are bridging racial divides and providing a therapeutic outlet for disadvantaged children in South Africa. In a society largely segregated by race, children in Cape Town’s black communities disproportionately suffer the traumatic effects of violence and poverty. Waves for Change, a nonprofit based in Muizenberg, uses surf therapy as a way to mentor and empower kids in Cape Town, helping to desegregate South Africa’s beach and surf culture in the process.

Figure Skating in Harlem is a group working to help young girls of color in New York learn teamwork, dedication, and hardwork - and the art of figure skating, a sport that is often perceived as inaccessible and overwhelmingly white and Asian-American. But the program doesn't just stop there; the program also includes academic and leadership development.

Once deemed youthful “superpredators” condemned to spend their entire adult lives in prison, the peer counselors in Philadelphia’s Life After Life support group help other formerly incarcerated people transition back to freedom. Of the more than 100 former “juvenile lifers” who returned to Philadelphia after the Supreme Court deemed them eligible for a second chance, none has been convicted of a new crime or serious parole violation – a key metric that encourages Pennsylvania to continue whittling down its record-high population of juvenile-life-without-parole inmates.

As the number of veterans with both physical and psychological injuries balloons, this softball team of 11 wounded warriors wards helps one another deal with war trauma and combat isolation by playing a little ball.