Community violence intervention programs do important, even heroic, work. But we need to think bigger about them – about the challenges they face as well as the potential they possess.

Defining those challenges and unleashing that potential are key to the mission of the Institute for Transformative Mentoring (ITM), which I direct and which works with the “credible messengers” who bring their lived experiences with the criminal justice system to bear on this work.

For more than a decade, under three mayors, New York City has supported community-based anti-violence programs. New York State also funds such programs. And in 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act which included funding that many cities are spending on community violence intervention.

Over the years, community violence intervention has proved that it can reduce violence, crime, and incarceration. Credible messengers are developing practices, and designing and leading programs. They’re keeping their community safe and building relationships where law enforcement and government officials cannot, reducing the need for punitive discipline in schools and over-surveillance by police in our communities.

In New York, we’ve built ample evidence showing that credible messengers reduce violence and incarceration among young people and connect them to educational and employment opportunities, housing, health, and other services. 

At the national level, the Center for American Progress (CAP) has concluded that “CVI [community violence intervention] programs serve as a vital way to connect community resources to the people who need them most, addressing the root causes of gun violence in a holistic way that cannot be done by law enforcement or local government alone.” 

Yet these efforts remain underfunded and fundamentally small-scale. They are, moreover, hemmed in by a too-narrow focus.

We are the community leaders with solutions to gun violence, crime, disconnected youth, and more. But these solutions need resources and leaders need opportunities grow. The reality is that most community violence intervention funding is limited to part-time work, like afterschool programming.

At a minimum, funding for credible messengers and other community-based services needs to be at a level to keep our communities safe and thriving. And the scope of those services need to be broadened.

Much has been written about the rise in crime during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its potential causes. All too often, it seems, all the world cares to see is how gun violence has impacted our neighborhoods and destroyed our communities.

In response, I would point to a recent report from the Brookings Institution. It walks through the array of pandemic economic and social hardships. It also looks at the issues inherent in long-term community disinvestment and concludes: 

Want to reduce violence? Invest in place – in the physical, civic, and social infrastructure that sustain neighborhood life. Because the weaknesses in that infrastructure closely correlate with violence.

Too often, there is little attention to the crime of community disinvestment. No talk about the root causes or the reaction to structural racism and designed poverty. And little recognition of our strengths: neighborhood organizations and mentors, the young people playing on the basketball courts and writing poetry and music, young people running errands for the elders and assisting sick parents or hungry siblings.

Our young people are expected to “beat the odds.” To become educated despite schools that fail to meet their needs. To overcome workplace discrimination and low wages. To overcome environmental and other hazards that are social determinants of poor mental and physical health. To find joy and community in weedy parks that lack tennis courts and soccer fields. 

True place-based investments should allow credible messengers to build on their ideas for keeping communities empowered and safe. Credible messengers should have careers in the school system where much harm and misguidance has taken place. Credible messengers should be restorative community-based practitioners providing skill-based programming focused on trauma-informed care and healing practices.

Credible messengers function as guardians, elders, and mentors. We work with young people and help to develop the critical consciousness of our Black and brown youth. 

At ITM we also encourage credible messengers to develop critical consciousness themselves. It’s why ITM has established a policy fellowship to support credible messenger leaders and to incubate their solutions. We study public policy, develop analytical and advocacy skills, meet with elected officials, and build networks of aligned organizations. Fellows create solutions that can improve society as a whole. 

To our young people we say: We see you. We walked these streets too. Your current position should not be shaped by the many issues that plague our nation, from its original sin of slavery to today's systemic racism. Instead, let’s build together towards strengthening our communities and towards supporting your dreams. 

William M. Evans is director of the Institute for Transformative Mentoring program at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

Photo by: Steven Pisano