Would New Haven be interested in a youth violence prevention program that can reduce homicides by 50 percent in a single year? Alderman Yusuf Shah and Bitsie Clark (pictured) were among those receiving a sneak preview of just such a promising program at a workshop convened at City Hall.
Clark filled in for on-leave-of-absence Chairman Drew King at the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee Tuesday night, where members heard details of the program-in-progress.
Officer Shafiq Abdussabur and Sergeant Petisia M. Adger (center and right in photo) of the NHPD presented their “Street Outreach Worker Program,”¬ù which they have adapted to New Haven from programs that have produced just such dramatic results in Providence, R.I. There, homicides fell from 22 in 2005 to 11 in 2006; much of the drop was attributed to the program under discussion.
Although the “Street Outreach Worker”¬ù proposal was not distributed or made public for scrutiny because it is still a work in progress, Abdussabur and Adger outlined its chief features for the alders.
Nine full-time new hires, all with street credibility, to function as mentors, social workers, facilitators, advocates. They would move among the approximately 200 most at-risk kids in the city, ages 11 to 21, whom the police have identified as most likely to commit dangerous crimes.
They would be deployed in four teams of two, along with a supervisor, who would liaise with two police officers. All workers would receive in-service training in mediation, psychology, and the range of skills associated with community policing as well as how to connect at-risk kids to available resources. However, and this is key, the Street Outreach Worker Program would be independent of the police department, with street credibility, so that kids would be assured of confidentiality.
“Who is the typical kid the street outreach workers will be in touch with?”¬ù Abdussabur posed rhetorically. “He may have a warrant out, he may have already committed a crime, be a drop out. He is likely living in a single-parent home; he well may be taken care of by a beleaguered grandmother. The street outreach worker will assess, put the kid in touch maybe with some job training, help get a G.E.D, maybe bring a minister to the house, make the call for the immediate intervention or for longer term. We’re dealing with a lot of kids who have such low self esteem they may not want to avail themselves of what’s out there. There are a lot of programs, and the street outreach workers will be there to look at the whole range of needs and have as their job to be a kind of nexus, and to mediate and head off trouble before it starts. We believe that all kids in New Haven can be saved. We just have to change their bad environment.”¬ù
“The teams will be operating,”¬ù added Adger, “24 – 7. They’ll go to a street where a crime has been committed and where, for example, retaliation is rumored and try to defuse the situation. They will go to the hospital to visit someone who’s been shot, they might go to the funeral, to parties, they will go wherever kids hang out and mediate and intervene before worse things happen. We believe that, over three years, this can make a huge difference.”¬ù
The aldermanic response from committee members such as Alex Rhodeen (at right in photo) and Gerald Antunes (at left) was positive “” in some measure because the police department proposal was not seeking, not yet anyway, any of the nearly $400,000 projected annual funding for year one. The funding search is at this point directed at the state and private sources.
Still, Alderman Rhodeen questioned the close-to-minimum-wage salaries for the street outreach workers. “Wouldn’t fewer workers at a higher than $8 per hour salary help guarantee the success? Think about it.”¬ù
Alderman Shah repeatedly asked for assurance that the program become known and established for mediation, not criminalization. The importance of that was echoed by Howard Creacy and Regina Weatherspoon (pictured), supervisors with the State Juvenile Probation Department. “With us credibility is everything,”¬ù said Weatherspoon.
Bitsie Clark wanted to know if there was risk that the street outreach worker “” described as someone who likely will have had some personal experience with some of the same kinds of issues facing New Haven’s tough 200 “” might run the risk of falling back into crime. “That wasn’t a problem in Providence,”¬ù answered Adger, “or in Boston.”¬ù
“What were the problems they encountered in the cities you studied?”¬ù asked Alderman Roland Lemar (not pictured).
“Actually one of the toughest there was finding the right officers to work with the street outreach workers,”¬ù said Adger
“But that’s because,”¬ù Abdussabur added, “the entire city was not behind their program. Here in New Haven, a key to our success is going to be that everyone, from the mayor to the chief of the police to business to religious leaders are all on board. And when an officer knows this, they’re eager to work. We have people who are doing this work already,”¬ù he said, “and they’re eager to sign up once we find the funding.”¬ù
Antunes, the only former police officer on the Board of Alderman, said, “I’m excited in no small part because Shafiq has put his name on this. Did you hear him? He sounded like a guy with a product he’s so sure of, it’s so reassuring. All the stuff he’s done so far, like CTribat, has been successful”¬ù
“What if the NHPD comes back to you and asks the City to help fund it?”¬ù a reporter asked.
“Well, in my district, we fight hard to get the cops to have more of a presence. If the city has to kick in, it might be more of a hard sell, but I’ll do what I can to sell it to my community for sure.”¬ù
“The best thing about tonight,”¬ù said Bitsie Clark, “was that the Board of Alderman has been leading a long city-wide conversation about youth violence triggered, as you know, by the curfew discussion. There’s a lot going on. I’m holding a meeting with youth agencies tomorrow, and we’re talking to non-profit funders, and we’re going to put a package together in connection with the budget. But tonight, here was far more than talk; here was a real, thought-through program. It’s very exciting.”¬ù
Of course "religious leaders" are "on board" (the public money gravy train), as public funds are going to be used, in part, for religious proselytizing. If they want to promote their superstitions, they should do it on their own damn dime.