Ex-gang members draw on their past to stop Fort Worth shootings before they happen

Nichole Manna

August 28, 2020 |

Fort Worth Star-Telegram |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Fort Worth, Texas

Inspired by a news story about a successful violence-intervention program in Richmond, California, and alarmed by a surge in gun violence in 2019, city officials in Fort Worth created VIP FW to deploy formerly incarcerated men and former gang members as mentors and mediators. In the program's startup phase, its mediations interrupted 18 potential shootings. Led by a man who pleaded for solutions at city council meetings, VIP FW intervenes in the lives of young men deemed at risk of committing violence who aren't reached by other community programs or by police enforcement.

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Deradicalizing Militants the High-Tech Way

Tereza Engelová

August 26, 2020 |

HlídacíPes.org |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Czech Republic

Czech Technical University's online learning platform, HERMES, combats terrorism based on proven methods of deradicalization of former jihadists and preventing recruitment of new people to terrorism. Interactive exercises and other tools teach prison and court officials to separate radical jihadists from other prisoners. As thousands of people imprisoned on terrorism charges finish serving their sentences and are released from prisons, the programs also target community-based spread of radical thought, including with job opportunities for former prisoners.

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With a truce brokered over Zoom, one D.C. neighborhood goes nearly 100 days without a shooting

Peter Hermann

August 19, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Violence interrupters conducted a dozen meetings over Zoom to negotiate a truce between two warring groups in a neighborhood that went from 11 shootings in 5 months to none for at least 99 days following the truce. To mediate the personal disputes that had led to violent clashes, those leading the negotiations, from the D.C. attorney general's Cure the Streets program, used their knowledge of the community and their credibility as streetwise actors standing apart from police to strike an agreement. Truces like this often don't last long, but this one helped amid big increases in violence citywide.

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العثور على أطفال مفقودين: صفحة على فيسبوك "تبعث" الأمل في مصر

دينا أبوغزالة

August 17, 2020 |

BBC |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Egypt

بفضل صفحة فيسبوك، عثر على أكثر من 2500 شخص مفقود من أصل سبعة آلاف بُلّغ عنهم، من مختلف الأعمار في مصر، وذلك من خلال مطابقة صور المفقودين بصور متسولين في الشوارع. بدأت الصفحة باستخدام التقنيات مفتوحة المصدر للتعرف على الوجه، وأصبح لديها شبكة كبيرة من المحامين والمعالجين والمعلمين لمساعدة المفقودين والعائلات للعيش مجددا مع بعضهم البعض.

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'A Facebook page solved the riddle of my missing child'

Dina Aboughazala

August 16, 2020 |

BBC |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Egypt

More than 2,500 missing people have been found in Egypt because of work by the Facebook page Missing Children, which compiled a vast trove of photos and uses facial-recognition software to match faces to cases. The page collected the photo library with a campaign asking the public to photograph children begging on the streets. Using a Facebook grant, the page has expanded to a website with face-recognition tools and expanded to Romania, the first step of what it hopes is establishing a global reach.

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Will a gun buyback program remove weapons from Flint's criminals?

Amy Diaz

August 15, 2020 |

Flint Beat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Flint, Michigan

A privately funded gun-buyback program is one of three core elements of the city of Flint's violence-reduction plan, but research has shown that such programs fail to make a dent in violent crime because the guns they take out of circulation were not destined to be used to commit crimes in the first place. City officials expressed hope that offering gun owners $50 to $100 to turn in their unwanted guns will reduce the city's violence. In reality, researchers said, the program might have more effect on reducing the risk of suicide. But crime guns are rarely surrendered in voluntary programs like Flint's.

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Gun Violence Left a Mark on His Childhood. He Says People Like Him Should Lead Efforts to Reduce It.

Ann Givens

August 13, 2020 |

The Trace |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The South Central Leadership Academy was started in Los Angeles by a college student who believes that gun violence survivors like him should lead the community response in finding solutions to violence. Its first year of paying more than a dozen student survivors to learn community organizing skills succeeded in attracting funding to expand to Nashville, Baltimore, and Atlanta. COVID-19 put the latter two expansions on hold, but LA and Nashville continued with well-attended classes learning remotely. Founder Marco Vargas hopes to turn this startup into a national network of youth leadership academies.

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A West Philly grandmother decided to save summer with a PlayStreet. Then, tragedy struck.

Samantha Melamed

August 08, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia's PlayStreets program is a nearly 60-year-old program that began as a meal service during the summer "hungry season," when school lunches are not served, but has evolved into a summer camp on 300 city blocks. Fifty blocks are designated "super streets," where high levels of poverty and violence are met with extra resources. On top of the usual meals and games, the city provides play equipment, DJ dance parties, and mural making. In a summer of extreme violence, neighbors say it also provides a sense of security and normalcy, which police credit as a violence-preventive measure.

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Scotland's 'Navigators' Transform Lives in the Emergency Room

Alasdair Lane

August 07, 2020 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Scotland, Glasgow

In Scotland, the Navigators program performs violence interruption work in seven hospitals, at the bedside of victims of violence, with counseling and connections to social services to nudge people into safer lifestyles. Because Navigators act independently of the police and other authority figures, and because their service follows clients into the community, they are able to win the cooperation of 65-90% of those they approach. A survey of 100 clients showed 23% fewer emergency room visits in the year after cooperating with the program. Navigators started after violence in Scotland raged in 2005.

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Surveillance Planes Watch Over Baltimore, But Catch Few Criminals

J. Cavanaugh Simpson

August 05, 2020 |

Baltimore Magazine |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

In the first half of a six-month experiment, Baltimore's "wide-area surveillance" using video cameras flying above city streets to aid in crime investigations has led to only one arrest. The city's police commissioner doubts the city will agree to pay for the surveillance once private funding for the pilot project runs out, but he says he'll know more after the six-month experiment. The experiment is aimed at Baltimore's high rates of gun violence. Besides its effectiveness, critics worry about its privacy implications and that it targets mostly Black neighborhoods.

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