Key Points:
- Wichita launches “Cure Violence” program to tackle gun violence.
- Core to the program are violence interrupters who work in the streets to build helpful connections with at-risk individuals.
- Program funded by $1.27 million from American Rescue Plan Act.
Gun violence is a growing problem in Wichita and instead of just addressing the problem after it happens, the City of Wichita recently funded a program designed to stop gun violence before it starts.
The city awarded a $1.27 million, one-year agreement for the operation of a community-based program designed to get ahead of, and prevent, violence in two areas that have shown an alarming increase in gun violence since 2016. The program will focus on violence prevention in the Northeast Wichita area from 9th Street to 25th and Oliver to I-135, and in South Wichita from Pawnee to 31st Street and Oliver to Broadway.
Cure Violence, the model the city is implementing, is a national organization that is proving success at reducing violence in communities across the country.
Core to the program’s success are trustworthy change agents who are “credible messengers” and can build connections with individuals most at risk of perpetrating or experiencing violence.
These neighborhood change Violence Interrupters and Outreach Workers go into the community and build trust and form personal relationships needed to mediate conflict. The change agents will also connect violence-impacted individuals to critical supportive social services.
The violence interrupters have one goal in mind: to stop the killings. They’re trying to save lives.
Destination Innovation
Since 2005, Marquetta Atkins-Woods, through her nonprofit Destination Innovation, has employed grassroots programming with a focus on strengthening and empowering youth to make changes in their lives, in the community and in state legislation.
Her programming most often interfaces with youth from underserved communities, with many of them exiting out of or matriculating in the foster care and juvenile justice system.
It is this alignment that made Destination Innovation (DI) the kind of authentic, community-based program the city wanted to lead the Violence Interrupters program.
“Everything we do is based around making our community a safer place, a better place and a community that feels invested in specifically when it comes to young people,” says Atkins-Woods.
Under the contract, DI is the direct implementer of the program, but they are partnering with Prevention Initiatives at Wichita State University’s Community Engagement Institute (in Old Town) as administrators of the program. In addition, they are working with Dr. Tasha Parker, of the Institute of Development consulting firm, as a third-party evaluator.
Cure Violence is a national program and model that is designed to be followed based on its evidence of success. Parker’s role will be to make sure the model is followed, although some local variations or flavor of the program is allowed.
“No program can be impactful if it isn’t implemented as designed,” says Parker. “With the targeted focus of this program, it’s important for us to be measuring how and if we’re legitimately engaging and collaborating with the community.”
Collaboration & Transparency
Atkins says she wants to make sure the community feels like they are an active part of the movement, and they legitimately have a say in the programming. To get the community involved, she plans to implement a community council to have some say in how the program moves forward.
“We’re going to do our due diligence to be transparent to make sure all of our T’s are crossed and our I’s are dotted and to just center in our community in the work that we do,” says Atkins-Woods.
As part of the planning and implementation process, the Cure Violence model calls for collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, not just residents. Atkins-Woods says she’s actively reached out to service providers in the community who can provide supportive services to impacted individuals. Some of those services might include housing, education and training, health care, and psychological support.
Atkins sees providing individuals with jobs and other lawful sources of income as an important issue to address, so she’s already reached out to Workforce and other employers about partnering with the program. She’s also working with Network Kansas to build an entrepreneurship academy for people touched by the system.
“Where people are looking for jobs, where people are looking for any kind of resources, to say these are the options that we have for you rather than going out and doing more violence,” says Atkins-Woods.
The Cure Violence model also uses hospital-based violence intervention that reaches out to individuals who were shot and hospitalized in an effort to prevent retaliation and connect survivors to social services. Atkins-Woods says the City of Wichita has already implemented Memorandums of Understanding with local hospitals to allow interrupters access to the injured in the hospital.
What the Program Isn’t
This isn’t a city program and this isn’t a handout, says Atkins-Woods. The program will be totally implemented by Destination Innovation. The money from the city isn’t a handout, but an investment in the community.
In addition, she says the program will not function as the “eyes and ears for the government or the police.”
“We are the eyes and ears for our community,” says Atkins-Woods. “This is not a program where we are giving the police information. We are not doing that, and Cure Violence is against that.”
The Program Will Be HIring
In addition to a program administrator, the program will be hiring five to six people in each area to serve as on-the-ground violence interrupters.
“These are people that may have been touched by the system or not necessarily touched by the system, but they could have had one foot in the street while they were younger and changed their lives and want to do better for the community,” says Atkins-Woods.
But what they must be is “somebody that the young people in the community or the people that are still in the streets in the community will respect and listen to,” she says.
Program Funding
The city used American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund the program. The contract has an option for an additional two years of funding.
