Minneapolis uses citywide plan to reduce youth violence

YouthBuild El Salvador is a program, partly funded by the United States, that teaches participants leadership and marketable skills, with an underlying emphasis on empathy, responsibility, and conflict resolution. In a country wrought with violence and gang activity, the hope is to give participants another option. At the end of their time in the program, participants are more likely to find employment – something that is hard to come by in the country.

Chattanooga’s Violence Reduction Initiatives used a focused deterrence strategy to reduce crime. The initiative has led to a decrease in gang-involved homicides and shootings, working with individuals on probation to provide them with the social services they need to stop them from re-entering a life of crime. A core part of this method is to show communities that they’re not forgotten and that they’re cared for, and yet securing funding and consistent support for such programming has been challenging.

The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence in Quebec has expanded rapidly, becoming a model for programs around the world. What sets it apart from projects in Europe and the United States is that it confronts extremism of all stripes — not just Islamist — and focuses on behavior that signals the risk of violence, not just radical ideas, only involving law enforcement as a last resort.

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.

In Sarasota, Florida, residents invested in change contend that for the poor to move beyond survival mode and break a multi-generational cycle, they need a wraparound strategy, rather than one-off or isolated services. The community is slowly growing programs like the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which helps to fund and support comprehensive programs that build sustainable change. This article explores solutions being pursued by the county from job training for adults to after school support for students.

New Orleans implemented an extraordinary 10-year plan that engaged unprecedented cross-sector collaboration between government, non-profit, and private entities to provide housing and housing services to the city's homeless veterans. The city's success in providing homes for every single veteran formerly on their streets motivated cities across the nation to tackle the crises using similar means, leading to a 1/3 decline veteran homelessness since 2010.

Minnesota schools began a comprehensive program aimed at assisting children of minority groups to successfully navigate the college application process and push them towards higher education.

In Detroit, Project Greenlight uses video surveillance technology to try to solve and deter street crime. Instead of the police requesting private security video after a crime occurs, businesses pay to install the Greenlight system, which then streams video live to police analysts. The police claim it has lowered crime, but researches have found no evidence that it affects violent crime rates. Critics see the system as a pay-to-play system in which businesses buy better police protection. And they say that the cameras, and the use of facial recognition software, bias enforcement against people of color.

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.

A space-based initiative called Global Fishing Watch is using satellite imagery and data to hold companies accountable to their promise of providing sustainable sourced seafood. While the volume of data and cost of obtaining it can be a challenge, the organization has partnered with key collaborators to help with the effort. Countries like Indonesia and Panama are working with them to stop illegal fishing.