How 'Violence Interrupters' Are Trying to Stop Gang Shootings in Brooklyn

In 2019, a South Sudan chief organized and empowered local “vigilante groups” (networks of households tasked with supporting each other), and since then, the community has transformed from a sparsely populated and violent neighborhood into a crowded but safe place where markets can stay open later at night. This community policing tactic has since spread to other South Sudanese areas and relies on collaboration between various authorities and ethnic groups to succeed.

CeaseFire Illinois have worked for years on the streets of Chicago intervening as “violence interrupters” to stop problems escalating into tragedy. Some volunteers are former gang members and they use community connections and personal relationships to stop shootings and retaliations before they happen. The group was the focus of a documentary called “The Interrupters.”

Gang violence in Minneapolis has caused many gun-related deaths and the destruction of families. One community organizer, a former gang-member and drug dealer, builds trust with at-risk youth that are on the edge. He visits kids, helps them get to job interviews, reviews homework, and listens to their individual struggles.

Philadelphia’s city-funded Group Violence Intervention program identifies people who commit crimes together and offers them help to get a job, GED, or whatever assistance they need. The program brings together a variety of community members to conduct outreach, offer social services, and warn them of the consequences of continuing to participate in crimes.

When protests against police violence turned into looting and anti-Black violence in some Latinx neighborhoods, violence interrupters from groups such as UCAN, EnLace, and Chicago CRED brokered a peace agreement that almost immediately ended that violence. The outreach workers’ years-long relationships and training in dispute mediation gave them credibility to address historic racial tensions among gangs in Lawndale and Little Village. The violence could have escalated, but three days of negotiation – and a sense of common cause against racism in policing – united the neighborhoods.

Gang violence in Chicago is not uncommon, but one organization is working to change what happens in the aftermath of funerals. Dubbed a public health program, Cure Violence enlists the help of community members to attend funerals, provide food and build trust with those that have been impacted by this violence in order to deter future incidents from taking place.

The city of San Bernardino adopted a strategy in 2017 from Stockton and Oakland that helped reduce homicides and violence in those communities. The Ceasefire model eschews blanket approaches like curfews and gang injunctions to focus on the places and people mostly likely to experience violence and then target them with outreach by leaders in the community, churches and criminal justice arenas. The idea is to build relationships and use data strategically to prevent crime.

Under a structured parole system, since March 2024, Nepal's Federal Probation and Parole Board has released 2,993 prisoners early, successfully reintegrating offenders into society and easing prison overcrowding, with a violation rate of just 2.98%.

East Harlem’s Cornerstone youth programming at community centers brings together community nonprofits, police, residents, and other local agencies to address gun violence in the public housing. Through community outreach, more strategic gang enforcement policies, and other programming, the approach has led to a 30% reduction in shootings in the area.

An organization in North Philadelphia facilitates anti-violence programs through youth mentoring and community outreach. Men Who Care aims to prevent crime and to provide an “all-inclusive community care effort” to improve the quality of life for community members through a variety of services and activities. A few of those initiatives include: Community festivals, education pods during virtual learning, weekly food pantries, and financial scholarships for college.