Community Safety through Intervention

Community Safety

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

As an organization, Resilient has four years of experience in the field of community violence intervention, contributing to the decrease in violent crimes in Los Angeles. We have provided case management for 300 gang-involved and at-risk youth with an 85% success rate of participants graduating the program in the areas of South LA and Echo Park. Resilient is passionate about community violence intervention because we understand that a lack of effective safety in communities contributes to the rise in gun violence. For example, since the onset of the pandemic, violent crimes have steadily risen in Los Angeles by 31% bringing the total number of murders in Los Angeles to 397. Of those who passed on, 47% were Hispanic and 37% were African American. Resilient's work as community interventionists allows us to keep the pulse of the community by utilizing our level of influence and established trust to reduce shootings, retaliatory efforts, and ultimately create local and regional truces.

With this funding, Resilient will facilitate our community violence intervention program utilizing a two-pronged approach that’s proven effective. Our approach provides hardcore street-based mediation to stop or prevent violence between gangs and the concurrent redirection of individual gang members and their families to improve lives. The first prong requires Resilient to use our trained Community Intervention Worker (CIW) to implement strategies that maintain peace between rival gangs, develop local and regional truces, defuse rumors, and provide crisis response and safe passages in the community and schools. The program will cover the areas from Washington south to Florence, and from the 110 freeway East to Alameda. Resilient is highly qualified to do this work because of our credibility and strong License to Operate in these communities and our past effectiveness in being able to engage the most violent and those at risk of causing harm. A License to Operate (LTO) is integral to effective community violence intervention. CIWs earn their LTO by establishing trust within the communities they serve and acting as credible messengers to cool tensions. Often, CIWs earn their LTO through lived experience and training in intervention. Because of their personal connection to the work combined with the knowledge of best practices, they are the most successful at guiding individuals to reach ceasefires and create non-aggression agreements that curb violence and allow for peace.

The intended impact of the community safety program is to reduce violence and improve the quality of life for families and individuals in South LA, Central LA, and Compton. Our goal is to connect 150 gang-involved and justice-impacted youth to support services where they will gain employment and the life skills needed to maintain employment and ensure positive outcomes. Successful implementation will lead to a reduction in violent crime and shootings, the creation of safe passages for youth to get to and from school, and an overall increase in feelings of safety. Resilient will leverage our LTO as credible messengers and community leaders to engage those who are prone to cause harm and stop violence at the root. Families of gang-involved individuals are often close to the occurring conflicts, which leads to an abundance of needs. Resilient will build relationships with families and offer resources such as PPE, food banks, and other services to provide an umbrella of community safety.

Resilient measures and reports our impact with success stories, participant case notes, and monthly documentation reports, as well as measuring the number of contacts and services case managers provide for each participant until program completion. When a youth or participant is referred to Resilient, a baseline assessment is administered to identify needs, strengths, barriers, risk factors, and a plan of action for short-term and long-term goals. The participant completes an assessment at the 6-month mark and 1-year mark to assess if behavioral risk factors are reduced, barriers removed, and strengths enhanced. Resilient’s leader has managed LA City and Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction & Youth Development (GRYD) contracts since 2007, with extensive experience managing database requirements for LA County’s Community Health Worker Outreach Initiative. We plan to continue strategic documentation and reporting to ensure the effectiveness and our programs and identify areas for growth.