THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

OFFICE OF COUNCIL MEMBER 

JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

NYC Council Seal

CONTACT: William Gerlich, 917-608-8784

wgerlich@council.nyc.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4:30 P.M. EST, AUGUST 13, 2014

 WILLIAMS JOINS MAYOR DE BLASIO, SPEAKER MARK-VIVERITO AND COLLEAGUES TO ANNOUNCE $12.7 MILLION EXPANSION OF THE CITY’S ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE INITIATIVE

Council Member Jumaane D. Williams get a thumbs up from the crowd as he discusses the expansion the Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence. (from left to right, front row)

Department of Youth and Community Development Commissioner Bill Chong, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, (second row) HHC president Dr. Ram Raju, Council Members Mark Treyger, Donovan Richards, Andy King, Vanessa Gibson, and Council’s Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer

PHOTO CREDIT: William Alatriste/ NYC Council

City invests a total of $15 million to expand comprehensive, neighborhood-based strategy to prevent gun violence to reach 15 precincts accounting for 51 percent of shootings in New York City

 
HARLEM, NY: Today, Council Member Jumaane D. Williams (D-Brooklyn), Deputy Leader and co-chair of the Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, joined Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Council Member Fernando Cabrera, co-chair of the Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, members of the New York City Council, and anti-violence advocates to announce the expansion of the City’s efforts to reduce gun violence, through the creation of the “Gun Violence Crisis Management System,” a citywide initiative to reduce gun violence, from five to 15 precincts accounting for 51 percent of shootings across the city. The new initiative expands on the Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, that includes and is centered around the “cure violence” model and include “wrap around” services, programs that respond to meet the needs of every spectrum in the community that is impacted by gun violence. This new strategy employs evidence-based community interventions, anti-violence messaging, and support services in areas with high rates of gun violence, and will be driven by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and its Director Elizabeth Glazer.
 
The cure violence model, an evidence-based public health approach, identifies and engages individuals most likely to be involved in gun violence and deploys interventions aimed at curbing that behavior before it occurs, including retaliatory shootings. The project employs “violence interrupters,” typically former gang members who have turned their lives around, to quell street disputes-intervening before escalation to gun violence-and links potential shooters to case management and supportive services.  The Task Force published a report in 2012 with initial recommendations on how to reduce gun violence within the city. Today’s expansion draws on almost all of the recommendations originally made, including treating gun violence as a public health issue, funding grassroots groups, incorporating wrap around services, creating an organized system, and coordinating with multiple city agencies for a multi-pronged approach.

Additionally, today’s announcement comes on the heels of the addition of 100 Summer Youth Employment jobs for young people engaged in the cure violence program, and builds on the work of the City Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, and the resulting $4.8 million initiative launched by the Council in Staten Island, the South Bronx, East New York, South Jamaica, Queens and Harlem.


“As co-chair of the Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, I would like to thank Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito for their support in expanding this anti-gun violence initiative to the neighborhoods that need it most. Preventing shootings cannot be left to policing tactics alone, so for the past three years, the Task Force has worked to combat gun violence using a multi-pronged approach involving all city agencies, community members and violence-interrupter groups. Though New York has experienced gun violence in ebbs and flows, today’s expansion is a historic shift and important step toward making a serious impact in this city,” said Council Member Williams. “Where New York City goes, the nation follows. I look forward to this initiative setting the standard around the country as a best-practice for ending this pandemic.”


This $15 million initiative-funded jointly by the de Blasio administration and the City Council-expands the cure violence system and will bring together six City agencies to support:

  • Creation of an organization to oversee the City’s efforts, chaired by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, that will include City agencies and providers to ensure coordination of programming and services; and continued support of research to ensure program effectiveness and accountability.
  • Expansion and addition of “wrap around,” community-based preventive services, such as job training, mental health and legal services, which will increase the likelihood of long-term violence reduction.
  • Establishment of school-based conflict mediation and anti-violence programs, including the Match program, which provides daily tutoring in Algebra to high school students, and which random-control trials have demonstrated reduction in violence by 44 percent-while improving academic performance by three grades.
  • Establishment of an anti-violence program training academy to train neighborhood-based anti-gun violence providers to ensure consistency and fidelity to the effective models of community based anti-violence work.
  • Development of community messaging and educational materials to reinforce community norms against gun violence, similar to successful campaigns promoting seatbelt use and against smoking.

With today’s expansion, cure violence will reach the following precincts:

  • East Harlem, South Manhattan (23rd Precinct);
  • North Harlem, Manhattan (32nd Precinct);
  • South Bronx (40th Precinct);
  • East Concourse-Concourse Village, Bronx (44th Precinct);
  • University Heights-Morris Heights, Bronx (46th Precinct);
  • Eastchester-Edenwald-Baychester, Bronx (47th Precinct);
  •  Seagate-Coney Island, Brooklyn (60th Precinct);
  • East Flatbush-Farragut, Brooklyn (67th Precinct);
  • Brownsville, Brooklyn (73rd Precinct);
  • East New York-Pennsylvania Ave, Brooklyn (75th Precinct);
  • Far Rockaway, Queens (101st Precinct);
  •  South Jamaica, Queens (113th Precinct);
  • Queensbridge-Ravenswood-LIC, Queens (114th Precinct);
  • and North Shore, Staten Island (120th Precinct)

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For more info on the Anti-Gun initiative hit us up at RandyKFisher@gmail.com.

Posted by Charles and Randy Fisher (Twitter @HHSYC).