2007 MetLife Awards - The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence & Providence Police Department
Date Published: 04/16/2008
Publisher: LISC
2007 MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award for Gang Prevention & Youth Safety
Project Name: Nonviolence Streetworkers Program
The Institute's Nonviolence Streetworkers Program is focused on promoting, educating, and training members of the community, professionals, and agencies in the methods of nonviolence related to Gang Prevention & Youth Safety. Through its trainers and streetworkers, the project influences and impacts youth, families, victims, perpertrators, schools, hospitals, and other nonprofits in the community. The Institute goes beyond its daily work of reducing gang violence by also effectively impacting strategy and policies in the state, and in the capital city of Providence by their involvement with organizations such as the Rhode Island Child Death Review Board, the After School Alliance, The Mayor’s Substance Abuse council, and the Providence Police Advisory Board. The Institute currently staffs thirteen outreach Streetworkers. They are youth workers who do not have an office. They make daily visits to middle and high schools, provide court advocacy, visit juveniles in the detention center, assist high risk youth with employment searches and provide conflict mediation. Streetworkers are recruited from the diverse groups that make up our city’s landscape, affording ex-offenders the opportunity to serve and save their own communities. The Streetworkers represent a group of diverse individuals whose work has become critical to community organizations combating youth gang violence, one of the biggest supporters and partners being the Providence Police Department. Weekly meetings with the Providence Police command staff and Providence Police school resource officers, close contact and referrals from the Providence Police gang unit, as well as from Providence Police Districts, and from detectives has allowed both organizations to work together while creating safer neighborhoods for the youth. The program has been widely recognized for its successful and innovative model.
Topics: Economic Development & Safety, --Community Safety, Education, Children & Youth
Type: Case study / model practice