by Bonita Gooch
In their office in a former church in Planeview, one of the city’s most violent areas, members of the Cure Violence ICT team were gathered for their daily check-in.
The team of about 12, four women and eight men, used this time to share, update and strategize. Today, they had multiple reasons to celebrate. The week before, there had not been any violent incidents in the targeted areas they serve.
But best of all, they received an impressive one-year report from the Wichita Police Department. In the year since the program has been in operation in Wichita, violent incidents were down 35%.
Marquetta Atkins-Woods, founder and executive director of Destination Innovation, the grantee for Cure Violence ICT, says, “When we’re doing our job, you’re not hearing anything.”
She’s right. In the past year, the community has heard about 35% fewer violent acts in Wichita and she and her team can take credit for a lot of that decrease. In June alone, the group documented 12 interventions of violent acts they were directly involved in.
Interrupting Violence
Unlike some programs where you hope your work is yielding positive results, at Cure Violence ICT, they know, because they’re actively in the mix.
“Usually, we go right into it,” says Latoya Scott, the lone female violence interrupter.
“We’re making contact with the people involved [in violent acts].”
The interrupters have intriguing stories to share about their successful interventions. Just last month, one interrupter shared, he talked down an infuriated and gun-holding young man who was dead set on finding and shooting his perceived enemy.
They’re often ahead of the violent situation thanks to their close ties to the community. They get the early buzz from social media, connections who reach out to them, and from daily canvassing in community hot spots.
They hear and know things, but when they miss something, they’re working on the back side to calm what could be violent retaliation.
As an example, the interrupters mediated a truce following a recent shooting. The day the shooter was released from jail, they arranged a mediation session with the shooter and the individual he shot.
Another key to the group’s long-term success is followup.
“We make constant followups to make sure the situation has been diffused and everything is still cool,” says Scott. “So the followups are very important.”
Through all of this, though, the team members remain neutral – not on one side or another.
Credible Team
A key part of the program’s success is their team. Dr. Kevin Harrison, the senior program manager for Cure Violence ICT, refers to them as “credible messengers.” Instead of people with book knowledge, the program hires people with street knowledge.
“We’re looking for some people to come from these communities, maybe even some that have made some of the same mistakes that we’re trying to prevent,” says Harrison about the program’s hiring requirements. “So we might have the 50-year-old version of you talking to the 16-year-old version of you. That message is going to land a little bit better.”
“We have people who can go from the trap house to the court house,” outreach coordinator A.J. Bohannon is known for saying about his team members.
Since the program leverages connections, most of the team’s members have strong affiliations with the program’s targeted service areas – Planeview and Northeast Wichita.
“They’re not just passing through,” says Harrison.
Because of their relationships and connections, team member Darrell Gails says, the interrupters have the kind of rapport with members of the community that the police definitely don’t have and that the average person doesn’t have, either.
Outreach Support
When an interrupter begins working with a person who is violent or susceptible to violence, they’ll suggest they become a program “participant” in the program, which connects them to the organization’s outreach team and services.
The relationship building continues with the outreach workers finding out what a participant needs and trying to coordinate wraparound services for that particular individual.
“Whether it’s through education, home stability, financial guidance (not financial assistance), just whatever deficits they face that could push them into that type of street activity, we try to curb that,” says Bohannon.
Cure Violence ICT doesn’t offer any programming, instead they’ve established relationships with a variety of organizations they refer participants to. Bohannon, says he’s seeing a lot of referrals for educational needs such as GED or high school diploma completion or job training.
They also don’t offer financial support but they give participants information on where they can obtain it.
The team sees consistency in outreach as a key to the success with this arm of the program. For that reason, each outreach worker has a goal of connecting with everyone in their group at least once per week, whether it’s by phone, text message or in person.
For individuals involved in the judicial system, they’ve found success in getting people waiting for their trial date connected with programs like anger management and drug treatment programs.
“It looks better for them going into court if they’ve been proactive,” says Elbert Costello, Cure Violence ICT’s northside site manager.
Changing the Norms
Overall the program is about changing community norms.
“Our main goal is to change the way our communities are thinking about how we deal with conflict. We need our communities to internalize conflict resolution over using guns and violence as a solution to temporary issues,” says Harrison.
“We’re addressing it,” he continued. “We’re getting to the root problems.”
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Community Voice