Roca's 'relentlessness' is changing the lives of Baltimore's young men

Birmingham’s Offender Alumni Association is a group of violence intervention specialists that check in with gun violence patients at the hospital to offer mental health services and case management to prevent reinjury and retaliatory violence. Since launching, the group has taken on 144 clients, providing wrap-around services to victims and their families, including mentoring, emergency relocation and funds for medicine, groceries, rent and utilities.

Trauma recovery centers are spreading across the United States as a way to help people involved in violent crime escape it and prevent future crimes. These centers provide personalized, wraparound services to anyone in need, regardless of whether the crime they survived was reported or whether they’ve participated in violence in the past.

Afterschool programs like Opportunities for Deserving Children’s Rolling Away From Violence program are helping reduce rates of violent crimes amongst the area’s youth. The program offers a safe space for youth to play and engage with each other and community mentors. Opportunities for Deserving Children has also partnered with other local organizations to provide resources like mental health care to youth and others in the community who need it.

The Blueprint for Peace is a community-driven gun violence prevention plan aimed to reduce gun violence and fatal shootings. The Blueprint works by creating partnerships within the community, from police officers and first responders to individuals and those working in public city offices to become educated on the importance of trauma-informed care.

Women-led dialogue circles in Maiduguri, Nigeria, have drawn over 1,000 gang members into conversation about peace, persuading some to renounce violence and become community advocates.

Volunteer violence interrupters with Youth Alive — a nonprofit based in Oakland, California — are breaking cycles of violence by providing immediate support to victims and their families after a crime. They receive tips from the community, direct people to resources, mediate conflicts, and even help survivors relocate.

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.

The federally-funded Community Violence Intervention Collaborative provided funding, training, and technical assistance to community violence intervention programs nationwide. Each program uses the assistance to target needs specific to its community.

Roca uses cognitive behavior therapy with young people at risk of committing violence in order to interrupt the cycle of violence and change how the individuals react to different situations. Roca teaches people skills to slow down, think differently about a situation, and respond in a way that deescalates violence. The organization was successful in Massachusetts, with 84% of those staying in the program for two to four years not having any additional arrests and 98% having no new incarcerations, and has since expanded to Baltimore.

Richmond's Operation Peacemaker Fellowship pairs mentors with young people at risk of violence, paying the youth a stipend if they meet particular goals toward a more stable and safe life. The mentors are former gang members and others with criminal records who earn the trust of their clients through their experiences and independence from the police. Other cities have adopted this model or similar approaches to preventing gun violence. One study said the Richmond program may have contributed to a significant decline in violence in that city.