2nd Call Violence Interrupters

Community Safety

South LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

We understand that in Los Angeles, people do not feel safe and there are risk factors for violence. The LAPD reported 12,997 violent crimes, 1,263 shots fired, and 534 shooting victims, from January 1, 2023, to June 17, 2023. According to www.neighborhoodscout.com, Los Angeles has one of the highest crime rates in America, with a crime rate of 32 per one thousand residents. Residents have a one in 135 chance of being a victim of a violent crime, such as rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. Research has long suggested that multiple risk factors have an influence on community violence, such as aggressive attitudes, life stressors, mental health (depression and anxiety), abuse, low attachment to parents, substance use, negative labeling, poverty, and many others. Individual, social, and community conditions and their interactions significantly influence initial and continued criminal and illegal behavior.

The 2nd Call Violence Interrupters project focuses on violence interruption, crisis response, retaliation prevention, and safe passage for community stakeholders. Our violence intervention and prevention work focuses on healing and self-development of the greater Los Angeles area's youth, adults, and seniors. Our trauma-informed development pathway builds on strengths, heals family connections, and explores the impacts of personal, community, and intergenerational trauma, strategies for resilience, and motivations for breaking the cycles of poverty and violence. For crisis response and retaliation work, 2nd Call identifies, hires, and trains formerly justice-involved community members who want to give back to their communities and have a "License to Operate" within and outside their neighborhoods to move across gang neighborhoods, conduct outreach, become mentors, and provide services to youth and adults. 2nd Call's Safe Passage is focused on mediating conflicts, providing resources to those in need, and advocating for the most vulnerable community members at schools, parks, public transit, and events. Safe passage efforts also include coordinated efforts to make locations for youth a designated safe space by having conversations with local gangs and mediating peace agreements and neighborhood constitutions that gangs agree to abide by so that youth from other neighborhoods can come and go safely.

Los Angeles County communities will be safer due to the services and strategies 2nd Call provides for violence prevention and increasing the perception of safety for the community. 2nd Call staff have a License to Operate in the target areas, deep historical knowledge of Los Angeles neighborhoods and gang territories, and have extensive relationships with current and former gang-involved individuals, police, and other interventionists. We leverage these relationships to respond quickly and effectively to a violent incident in order to prevent the spread of further violence. Additionally, we use indigenous knowledge, relationships, and social media connections to monitor and anticipate rising tensions, thus providing true prevention services. 2nd Call interactions significantly influence initial and continued criminal and illegal behavior. Therefore, expanding the program could help reduce incidences of violence and increase the safety perception in Los Angeles communities.

We currently measure our impact using the number of incidents we respond to, our reputation in our community, and whether local crime rates are increasing or decreasing. 2nd Call Community Interventionists have been actively working in the South Los Angeles area since November 2022. From January 2023 to May 2023, 2nd Call Community Interventionist responded to 58 incidents of violence and 14 homicides. The community continues to rely on 2nd Call for conflict resolution, violence intervention, rumor control, and mediation. In May alone, 2nd Call mediated interactions between gangs on four separate occasions, as active gangs dialogue to address issues and ensure that misunderstandings are dealt with peacefully. LAPD year-to-date number comparisons between 2023 and 2021 show violent crimes are down by 1.9% from 13247, shots fired by 15.7% from 1498, and shooting victims down by 16.8% from 642. Overall, we are positively impacting the community.