Community safety

One thing good about our violence interrupters that we try to get people from the community that is credible.

They have relationships in all these zones then we travel in twos for safety

and we use the briefing take that information and they shared connected with the data

and then we'll be able to go out and extract in the community and see where those areas we need to target the most.

Many of the folks that are in the CVI space and the folks who are doing the frontline work

have maybe themselves been perpetrators of violence or they've been victims of violence.

Talking to the people that are the interrupters themselves.

That's a story of new life. It's a story of redemption.

All of that revolves around a person. So we call LTO, license to operate,

which is really one's credibility that is given to you by community in order to engage those that will have the highest chance of being shot or being a shooter.

People that are at the center of that cycle of violence.

I have lived experience. 

46 years old. 

The first time I've been shot, I was 14. 

The last time I was shot, I was shot in my head. 

That led to a hospital responder coming to my bedside, 

asked me to go into a program that actually got me this job to be the first hospital responder for Grace Medical Center. 

Community violence intervention is something indigenous to our community since we've been a community. 

And so seeing this approach expanded across the country has really created opportunities for those with lived experience 

and many of which have been system impacted where their past may have been a liability where in this work their past is actually an asset. 

Me being a hospital setting that's even more important because 

when somebody come to the hospital and they be like 

oh damn yo man we was in Hagerstown together. 

It's inspiration to them. 

Oh you oh you did that. 

Oh I know I can do it. 

That's the credible messenger.

It's for me to show that I'm on the right path

and to get other people also on the right path. 

I deal with giving them job opportunities. 

If they don't have certain identifications while they walking around here, 

I make sure they get that. 

It make me feel good that I'm doing my job out here in these streets and changing lives. 

I interrupt violence. 

Our violence interrupters, they canvas this area. 

They talk to business owners. 

They talk to the people. 

So, we don't just do it alone. 

We do it in partnership with the community.

Justin: Ayo!

Your mom's worried about you.

How you holdin' up, bruh?

Male Voiceover: They shot my best friend...

That's how I'm holding up.

Graduation was right around the corner, man.

We had a plan...

You think I could just let that slide?

Justin: I've been there and I know the feeling...

I also know it doesn't end well and you got too much to lose.

Male Voiceover: Yeah...

Justin: It's hard right now but you gotta keep going. 

Not just for you, but for him.

And those plans y'all talked about?

Let's make 'em happen.

Male Voiceover: I hear you.

Justin: Come on, let's get a bite to eat.

Male Voiceover: [Exhale]

Paul: Can I talk to you for a second?

I'm Paul, a violence intervention specialist.

How you feelin'?

Male voiceover: You're not my doctor.

Paul: You're right, I work here. 

You're from up the street right? 

Male voiceover: Yea, but when can I leave? 

I got something I need to handle.

Paul: Yea? What's that? 

Male voiceover: None of your business.

Paul: You know, when I got shot...

I was thinking the same thing, but it's not worth it. 

Male voiceover: You think so, huh? So what do I do now?

Paul: Let's start by letting me know what you need. 

Now, getting shot is a lot to heal from.

Not just your body, but also your mind too. 

And I'm here to help you through it.

Let's focus on getting you on your feet...instead of getting event.

Male voiceover: I'm listening.

Paola: Haven't seen you in awhile.

You been going to those classes?  

Male voiceover: Nah

Paola: C’mon, talk to me, problems at work? Your lady? Your boys?

Male voiceover: There's always something. 

There's this guy, I swear if he plays with me one more time, it's not gonna end well.

Paola:  Ok… and where has that gotten you in the past? What did we talk about? 

Control your mindset and you control your actions, right?

Take a breath, right now.

Good...Now we can think it through.

It hasn't been easy, and your grandmother's sick, too.

I know how hard that can be but I also know you have what it takes to get through this. 

I'll call you tomorrow.

We'll keep talking.

Male voiceover: [Exhale]

I'm running into every fire every day for 37 years. I don't say no. 

It's more than just taking a gun out their hand. If you change their mindset, then they going to view the world different. 

I started at three when my father was killed in the Vietnam War. It was displaced trauma. I saw him go to war to save lives. And I guess at that point, it's my DNA. 

Life Camp is an organization that I founded in 2002. The work is around focusing on those young people that the world doesn't care about and helping to reduce and change the system of violence that existed in our community. 

We went 865 days without no one being shot. We went 4 years without no one being killed. 

Y'all are the key. y'all the oxygen mask to pump new love and new life and new hope into their souls, into their hearts. 

This block was a very dangerous block. A lot of folks were killed, a lot of violence, and now, you know, we were able to transition the culture of what took place on these corners. So, a lot of the people who come from these blocks work with us now. 

It's for me to show that I'm on the right path and to get other people also on the right path. I deal with giving them job opportunities. If they don't have certain identifications while they walking around here, I make sure they get that. It make me feel good that I'm doing my job out here in these streets and changing lives. I interrupt violence. 

Our violence interrupters, they canvas this area. They talk to business owners. They talk to the people. So, we don't just do it alone. We do it in partnership with the community.

The police called my chief of streets and they work together and then my chief shows up on a street side and keeps calm, keeps order. 

So we pull up with peace, we pull up with life. 

Just the bus coming on your block alone. 

It's 35 ft of pure life because it's bright. It's big. 

We pull up in communities and there's a situation, people don't want to talk cuz they're really in a place of trauma. 

We can use the bus as mediation because this is Switzerland neutral territory. 

This is our nutrition kitchen. Families learn how to make healthy meals, healthy snacks because in our communities, we're in a food desert. 

There's many different pieces to the ecosystem of community violence intervention. 

Those brothers and sisters on that front line, they are credible messengers. 

They come from the same community that these folks come from. 

They are inherent to the culture and the nuances that created the violence and that can change the violence. 

I go into the juvenile justice facilities and work with the justice impacted youth from the community so that when they transition back into the community, they have a clearer path maybe or some guidance. 

It's easier for them to kind of maneuver through certain things when they know they have a good support system or they know they have people just listen to them or care. 

I'm 60. So either they're children of someone, they've worked in the field, we've grew up together because the people of the community is the soil and the fabric to change that community. 

I know who to bring on the team so that we have real credible messengers. 

I came home from college, got a good job, and um I fell to the streets. I've been shot a few times. I got out of that, became a family man. 

When Erica started this, she kept telling me she needed me cuz she knew what I could bring. 

We're here to change everybody. The sons, the daughters, whatever we could change, I want to do that. I want to be a part of that. 

Peace 

is a lifestyle. 

Peace 

is a lifestyle. 

Peace 

is a lifestyle. 

We already have a connection with everybody. 

People actually do respect us in the community and when they see us they know we don't mean no harm that we actually trying to help them and we want the best for them.

Community violence intervention workers need to be looked at as human beings who are helping save lives while they risk their own. 

The number of young people who are alive is what I'm most proud of because I literally know there is people who would not be alive if it was not for Life Camp 

and parents who lost their children and are able to move on past that that breaking point. 

And then the hundreds of leaders that we created 

that we gave birth to 

that is duplicating our work 

that's carrying Orange on to another level 

rolling through their streets and making sure peace is real for our people. 

We all want our children to be safe and that's why it's community violence intervention 

cuz we all live in the community. 

No matter what community you come from, 

we're in this world. 

Appreciate you. Love you.

They trying to get a tear on camera.

How you doing? I came into this work about 20 years ago.

This work was given to me.

I mean, it was handed off and cultivated by elders that have been doing this work for a long time.

And it's something that I honor.

This is us right here. Right. This is a big area right here. Yeah. It's a very, very large area.

My work is really to help build power, help support people in their personal transformations as we transform and build new systems that are going to contribute to public safety in a different way.

At the core of what CVI is is you have violence interruption.

You have conflict mediation.

You have case management and life coaching.

There's 150 intervention workers that are working all the time to help deescalate and prevent things from actually happening.

Putting together activities, ways to engage, you know, the young people that are at the center of a lot of this and and providing other um opportunities.

For us, it's very clear that that CVI works.

The Urban Peace Institute is the academy to train folks.

We had to build the curriculum. It had to be reflective of reality and reflective of the streets.

So about 80% of it is by practitioners, people who have been there, done that, people who are doing the work currently.

Some younger folks that we're bringing in, of course, then we have some of the older folks that have been doing it for a long time there.

Right? People that have a lot of that respect.

And then we can bring in other professionals from other fields.

The training is specific to the needs of the community.

I've always said that the people in the communities, they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Right?

We have to understand that if you're not interrupting violence, that is not the core CVI.

My little homies know me like, so I already had that respect coming out.

I'm able to communicate with these youngsters a little more.

The license to operate is really one's credibility that is given to you by community in order to engage those that will have the highest chance of being shot or being a shooter.

People that are at the center of that cycle of violence.

A license to operate is one of the best tools that you could have because that allows you to maneuver in your community.

I actually had to do this work in order to keep myself straight and to be living the life that that's going to fulfill me right in in the long run.

So understanding that we're not going to be able to stop everything, but hopefully with the relations that we're fostering, it will allow us, you know, to prevent a lot of the stuff that may happen if we were not there.

The CVI lane is very specific to working with the population that is at the center of the cycle of violence and you're working directly with them in order to reduce the likelihood of violence to help transform their lives and create offramps into a better life. 

The urban pieces we don't just work with one organization work with all the organizations in the city. Hey, how's it going? Good. You know, we have that connector role.

Arise Go services Harbor City.

This is one of the body shops of a community member and we send some of our participants over here and so they help them out with like, you know, life skill classes, work, work ready experience, you know, hands-on experience and stuff like that. 

So, CVI doing that work is not just us, right? is about everybody. All these other um individuals like the families, the the the businesses, you know, they play a major role in what's going on here in the communities.

That's why like food giveaways are bigger than just food giveaways.

Got the homies working out here that's occupying their time. Like you're dropping those seeds, right?

In LA, as we have a lot of Latinos, Chicano communities, the conversations are different.

It's family. It's community, you know, interactions are different. It's culturally appropriate and responsive to where our communities are at. 

Intervention is very connected to the culture that we come from, right? 

Those beliefs that we learn either in Mexico, what we learn in our household, the way that we operate, the way that we connect with our community members looks different.

It's so family oriented.

So mostly everybody that lives here, right, are related to somebody.

My community, my older homeboys I consider them as my family because we've been embedded in their life for such a long time. I think that's the beauty of it.

Helping those who we love that and the community that we come from is very inspiring and and fulfilling.

CVI is giving people hope and approaching young people with compassion and love to provide opportunities for them that's always existed for generations.