-I am very fortunate and very grateful to be in this,
an amazing space.
It feels like community.
I'm seeing some new faces, meeting some new people,
reconnecting, seeing some of my colleagues,
which I don't often get to see too often.
But it was really great to be reconnected with a few
of our community leaders in a small, intimate conversation
that we had just a few minutes ago,
which is why we are running a little bit behind here.
And I know Brent is going to share a couple thoughts
around that, so I don't want to steal his thunder,
but I just want to express my gratitude openly to those
who participate in that group,
who gave us at the federal level,
kind of a small glimpse of what they experience every day
and what they have to grapple with
and to see the good work happening.
I also recognize quite familiar faces here.
I see my long-term good friend Eludra,
I see Soren, and I got to meet for the second time,
David and De'Vonte' as well.
Mark, where's Mark at? There he is.
Mark and I go way back maybe 12,
13 years ago in the YMCA days when he was an average worker,
and so was I in Chicago.
And as I mentioned, Soren and I were in Chicago
not too long ago until DOJ kind of stole me away from the city.
But as we begin our program,
we like to really fully express our gratitude to each one of you
for taking the time to join us this morning.
Especially as we celebrate two years of CVI investments,
we feel very privileged to be here and to be in a position
that we are at the Department of Justice
in our efforts to elevate the good work
that you are all doing.
Today we're joined by some amazing community leaders.
Some as I mentioned,
I had the chance to meet before and new ones as Ben and others
that I had the pleasure of meeting this morning briefly
and I'm looking forward to following up with.
And I can't, as I look at this group,
I can't think of a better example of what real community
and what real village looks like.
And I wish that I could say that's the case
everywhere we travel.
Reeve and I were just here a couple of weeks ago,
but we had a small sample from talking to our chief
to hear what they're doing on his front
to just some of the local organizations here.
And so, without any further ado,
I'd like to introduce both a very close friend and colleague,
someone that has taken his role very serious who's new
in some extent, and is the position, but not new to DOJ,
not new to the work in itself.
I want to really take a moment here
to acknowledge the good work
that Brent Cohen has done in his lifetime
to support people who have been impacted by the justice system,
but also in finding ways to bring healing
and elevating good leaders across the country
around this work. And so, without any further ado,
I want to introduce,
and please help me welcome our acting
Assistant Attorney General Brent Cohen.
[ Applause ]
-I almost tripped and went down.
That would've been a great way to start.
Anyway, good morning, everyone.
-Good morning.
-Thanks, Eddie, so much for that introduction
and for your leadership,
not just at the Department of Justice
over the last several years,
but in the field
of community violence intervention over many years.
I'm really grateful for your work.
And a huge thanks to our hosts, Shantel, and Rachel, and Paul.
You'll hear from Shantel and Rachel in just a moment.
Thanks for having us here at Urban Family.
It's a privilege to share the podium with the three of you,
with Shantel, and Rachel, and Eddie
and to join the dedicated professionals in the audience
who are working so hard to reduce violence in Seattle
and in King County.
And to bring hope and opportunity
to the communities of this great city and this great county.
I want to acknowledge the U.S.
attorney for the Western District of Washington,
Tessa Gorman, who is here with us this morning.
Tessa, thank you for your leadership in the district
and for your support of community-based partnerships.
[ Applause ]
I also want to thank my friend and great colleague,
the Director of our National Institute of Justice,
Dr. Nancy La Vigne.
You'll get to hear more from Nancy in just a moment,
but she heads
up the Research Division of the Department of Justice
and has been central to building our base of knowledge
about community violence intervention strategies.
And let me also acknowledge Katherine Brown,
who leads our Office of Communications at OJP.
Her and her team have been working hard to shine light
on the amazing work being done by CVI professionals here
in Seattle and King County
and in communities across the country.
I'm grateful that she's able to join me here today.
And finally, let me thank all of the partners in the room,
including our law enforcement professionals and partners
from Des Moines and from Kent.
We know as we build a community infrastructure,
a community safety infrastructure
that is going to take investments in community,
and it's going to take partnership
with law enforcement.
And I'm grateful to see that here in spirit
and in body today, so thank you.
Despite what my voice might suggest,
I am feeling really energized to be here this morning.
Earlier this morning,
Eddie and I had the chance to meet with some
of the exceptional leaders
who are implementing community violence intervention programs
locally, including the directors
of some outstanding community organizations here in Seattle,
along with folks from the state of Washington,
all of whom bring such rich experience
and an incredible wealth of knowledge and insights,
both about the challenges their communities are facing,
and importantly, perhaps more importantly,
about what it takes to meet those challenges.
During our round table discussion,
we had the privilege of hearing in very personal terms
about the stakes in this work. Local leaders told us
how violence deeply impacted their own lives
from an early age,
and how community violence intervention programs
and the hope that came with it,
helped them find purpose and direction
and envision a more hopeful future for themselves.
We have an obligation as government officials,
as civic leaders,
as professionals serving our communities
to take a multifaceted approach to preventing
and reducing violence.
And that includes lifting up CVI programs
and helping to take them to scale
so that others with similar experiences
have access to the same kind of support and opportunities
so that they too are able to find this --
able to feel the same kind of hope.
And we simply can't do this lifesaving CVI work
without credible messengers.
Like so many people in this room,
your lived experience gives you a connection
to the people of your communities
that no one else can claim. And that connection,
that connection is critical to reducing violence
and saving lives,
and often to preventing shootings
before they even occur.
I particularly want to thank the dedicated frontline workers
who put their lives on the line
and put themselves in harm's way to support and protect others.
Thank you for doing that.
There's no question that you are the driving force
behind community violence intervention,
and I'm proud that I can be here representing an administration
and a Department of Justice
that has put its full support behind you.
CVI strategies form a centerpiece of the president's
Safer America Plan and the Justice Department's
comprehensive strategy for reducing violent crime.
And through us, the Office of Justice Programs,
DOJ has made historic investments in CVI programs.
I'll add here,
we've also revised our mission statement
at the Office of Justice Programs
to include a particular focus on lifting up communities
as co-producers of public safety and justice.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with DOJ,
but things like mission statements
don't get changed quickly.
And so it's really a testament to the amount of focus
that this work has at DOJ and to the high regard
with which we consider this and the critical nature
that we believe this CVI programs provide.
So right now we're here today to commemorate
the two year anniversary of the Department of Justice's
Community Violence Intervention and Prevention
Initiative or CVIPI.
It really rolls off the tongue.
Since the program's launch,
we've made an unprecedented federal investment
totaling nearly $200 million
to support community violence intervention programs
and research with much of this funding
coming courtesy of
the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
These investments have provided direct funding to promising
and effective local programs.
And they also tap some of these same organizations like CCYJ
to reach smaller community-based groups
that are even closer to the communities and individuals
most impacted by violence.
And they're doing this through microgrants
and technical assistance
that can help build organizational capacity
and sustain their work for the long term.
To date, over the first two years,
we have directly funded 76 organizations
in 29 states and territories.
And these grants are reaching communities across the country
that are affected by violence from Alabama to Minnesota,
and from Miami to right here in Seattle.
The supporting efforts in our largest cities
in smaller metro areas and in rural communities,
many of them led by community-based organizations
and others as part of city led collaboratives.
And we're supporting seven organizations,
as I mentioned just a moment ago,
that serve as intermediaries
and that are providing funding and hands-on
assistance to smaller community-based organizations
to help them access resources
and build their capacity to grow
and sustain their work in the long term.
Now, it's no mistake that we're here in Seattle,
in King County to commemorate this anniversary.
Over the past two years, Seattle, King County,
and the state of Washington
have come to embody our approach in action.
Thanks to the commitment of so many people in this room today,
we're seeing what's possible
when partners come together across sectors
to build out a community safety infrastructure
that is up to the challenge of tackling gun violence.
The Center for Children and Youth Justice
is tapping into federal resources
to deliver direct services to their community
and to build the capacity
of outstanding grassroots organizations in the city.
And we're so fortunate
that our partners from
the Washington Department of Commerce
have embraced this effort and are working closely with us
to lift up the vital work
that CVI leaders are doing across the state.
And we're not done yet,
as we celebrate two years since the launch of CVIPI,
we're gearing up for a new round of funding.
The investments that we've made thus far
are part of a longer-term strategy
to expand these approaches
and seed this work across the country
so that CVI becomes a core component
of the community safety infrastructure.
And I'm pleased
that tomorrow the White House will have more good news
to share about additional investments
that we'll be announcing in making to support
CVI programs nationwide.
[ Applause ]
Now, it's important to note that part of the reason
we're able to make this commitment is
because we've seen the promise that
community violence intervention holds for our country.
Thanks to the successes that dedicated CVI professionals
like many of you have helped to achieve,
homicide is down nationally and dramatically in fact.
With just a report released earlier this week,
showing 2023,
experiencing the largest single year decline
in the last 20 years.
I know that CVI strategies have played an important role
in making this possible. But it's also true
that not every city has experienced the decline equally,
and not every part of every city
has experienced that decline equally.
So we have much, much more to do,
including right here in Seattle.
We know our work is far from over,
but I remain convinced that comprehensive local strategies
that include CVI offer real promise for reduced violence.
And preliminary data for 2024 suggests
that Seattle is headed in the right direction
this year as well.
We all know that violence is a deep
and complex problem with no single cause
and no single solution.
There's no one size fits all strategy,
but that's the promise of CVI.
It's a community driven approach that grows from the ground up,
both led by in engaging those
with the greatest stakes in the outcome.
While our national level initiative is
only two years old,
community violence intervention is not new.
Certainly not new to many of you.
And it is really at its core, a local story.
Community leaders have been pioneering this work
on the ground for decades,
long before there was investment at scale
from the federal government.
And very often you were doing this work without the resources
or the recognition that you deserve.
We know, and you know better than anyone,
that this is an all-hands-on deck effort.
Each of us has to stake a claim, police and prosecutors,
community and faith-based organizations,
educators and healthcare professionals,
government leaders and community members themselves,
all working together to widen our vision of community safety.
To envision safety, not just as an absence of crime,
but as the presence of opportunity.
Our hope here is to create a public safety landscape
that puts the community at the center,
one that recognizes your work as a critical complement
to our traditional justice system approaches.
We are very proud to be your partners,
and I know I speak for my colleagues when I say
that we are excited for what lies ahead in our work together.
Thank you.
Thank you for everything you are doing for our communities.
Thank you for the difference
you are making in the lives of the people you touch.
And thank you for joining us today.
[ Applause ]
-So thank you so much, Brent, for that.
Please give him another hand of applause.
[ Applause ]
And the hand of applause is not
because of his remarkable comments.
It's really because he wasn't feeling
that well a couple days ago,
and yet he was so committed to come here
that he took a five-and-a-half-hour flight
to come out here.
This is how important it was for him to be here.
And again, thank you Brent.
We see your efforts day in, day out.
The next person I wanted to introduce to the podium
is another great friend and colleague.
She just came out of an amazing event
that I was able to bear witness as Pittsburgh
as NIJ was convening their second annual conference
in such a long time because of COVID and other issues,
but it was incredible to see CVI at front center
at this conference as well.
And I'm not going to steal her thunder,
but I am at awe of the way
that our director for NIJ Nancy La Vigne has moved into space,
how she has pushed the envelope,
and has expanded the way
that we are trying to build the bench of researchers
in the CVI community and related fields.
So without any further ado,
I want to introduce my good friend,
Nancy La Vigne, Director of NIJ. -Good morning, everyone.
And thank you so much to our hosts at Urban Family
and to all of you here today.
I'm so short.
I have the unenviable task of addressing all of you
today on the topic of data and research.
It's scintillating, I know, but here's the thing,
research is really important.
Evaluation is really important.
If for no other reason
that rigorous empirical evidence speaks to power, right?
I mean, that's what the policy makers want to see.
Show me the impact, you know, like what's the cost benefit?
Like that's what the decision makers want to see, okay?
And if I didn't believe in research and the power
and the impact of good evaluation,
I wouldn't be in this job.
But here's the rob,
we're talking about community-based
violence intervention efforts, right?
And when you talk about that and you talk about research,
the two are like oil and water. Why?
Because there's a very long history
of researchers primarily in academic institutions
that conduct their research at an arm's length
and defend that by saying, well, we have to be objective, right?
And it ends up being research on communities
rather than research with community.
And when I took this role at NIJ,
one of the primary reasons I wanted to be in it
was to preach about a different kind of research.
And that's what I call inclusive research.
And that's research that takes the time
to engage with the people closest to the issue or problem
that we're talking about, right?
The true experts, the people with lived experience,
but also the practitioners with their own professional expertise
getting as close to the ground as possible.
And we're trying to do that in a lot of different ways at NIJ.
And I think that our approach, I hope,
is adding value to community-based
violence intervention and prevention
efforts across the country. First and foremost,
we're really requiring that all of our grantees,
we do most of our work by seeding research grants
and in the CVI space,
these are primarily evaluations and partnership
with the community.
But we're requiring them that they really engage
with folks on the ground,
we're requiring them to engage authentically.
We're also requiring them to use what we call mixed methods
or put a different way, combining the numbers
that the policy makers want to see with the narratives.
Again, the lived experience, the people on the ground.
When you combine those two,
that's where you really have the powerful evidence, right?
Because you've got the hard data,
but then you ground truth it, right?
With people who say, you know,
I'm not sure that number is right.
Let's explore it in a different way.
I can't tell you how many times I've, in my own research,
found that I would've drawn erroneous conclusions
if I didn't go back to the people
who help generate that data to understand it,
and importantly,
to understand the implications of those research findings
for making these programs better, right?
More powerful.
Now, look, I mean,
you all are toiling away trying to cobble together resources
to do the important work that you're doing, right?
And I recognize that there are funders
who want to see the numbers, and even, dare I say,
at the Office of Justice programs,
we too want to see the numbers
and we run you through the ringer, and we want to see,
it almost feels like auditing, right?
How many people have you served and what have they received?
This and that the other.
And I just want to say there's another way
to think about evaluation,
and that's evaluation in the moment to learn
how you can make the program better
as you're implementing it.
And that's called action research.
And it's something that we really want to support from
where we sit in Washington,
but also through the people that we're funding
and supporting on the ground in communities across the country.
So we're supporting a lot of that work.
We're also supporting evaluations of a lot
of emerging programs and ones
that you all have been working on for a long time.
I'm just going to lift up three examples.
One that I'm really excited about
that we awarded last year was on a healing-based and trauma
informed intervention.
I mean, you don't make up these types of programs
from Washington D.C., right? These are programs
that are developed at the grassroots level,
recognizing that community violence intervention work is
really difficult.
And that even the people who are working to reduce trauma
are experiencing trauma themselves.
So you need a really holistic approach to that kind of work,
and we need to be able to evaluate that
so we can lift up those lessons learned
and share them with others.
We're also supporting evaluations
of hospital-based interventions and going further upstream,
diversion opportunities for youth
who are apprehended with loaded weapons, right?
So that they're not incarcerated,
but we reach them early on.
And then overall, we're also providing training
and technical assistance resources
to help local research partners to build capacity on the ground
so that you all can be doing your own data collection,
your own measurement, and your own assessment of what works.
So with that,
I'll just close by saying we want to be a resource to you.
When you're thinking about data evaluation,
even if you don't want to be,
but perhaps your funders are asking you,
please don't hesitate to reach out.
We're here for you. Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Nancy, again, for the wonderful work you're doing.
There's a lot that I wish I could say right now,
given our Pittsburgh event,
but we don't have a lot of time.
I just want people in the audience to know that I hope,
some of you might not know me,
but I hope you trust that there are good people
at the Department of Justice
who are really trying to lift up the voices
and build the evidence for the skeptics
that are out there about the importance of this work.
And I would say at the local level,
you have a couple champions who are sitting in this room today,
or a few champions,
but two of them we'll be highlighting in just a second
who I've had the very distinct pleasure
of getting to know better, more so in the last three weeks
than since we started funding the organization.
I want to take a moment to just recognize Rachel for going far
and beyond your call.
And on top of the work that you have to do every single day
here you are working with our local partners
to really help accommodate our request
to be able to host this event. And so, without any further ado,
I want to introduce who I would like
to call my good friend Rachel Sottile,
who is the Executive President of CCYJ
and one of two grantees that she's holding with us as well.
So thank you.
Rachel, I'm going to pass the baton to you.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-What an honor it is -- okay, I'm tall.
I'm wearing the heels.
So what an honor it is to welcome the U.S.
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
assistant attorney general,
acting Assistant Attorney General, Brent Cohen.
I don't think anyone introduced you.
Special policy -- Senior Policy Advisor, Eduardo Bocanegra,
Eddie as we all know him and other visionaries from the U.S.
Department of Justice here to Seattle.
As Eddie said, my name is Rachel Sottile
and I serve as the President and CEO
of the Center for Children and Youth Justice.
And along with my colleagues William Hairston,
I believe is in the house, and Nicholas Oakley, he's there.
We're just delighted to be a part of this amazing event
and so excited about the intermediary role
that CCYJ will play in this historic initiative
that we're talking about today. In recent years,
both King County and the city of Seattle
began partnering with community-based organizations
in a public health approach to reducing community violence.
Where these initiatives have come together,
CCYJ has been providing capacity building and support
and training and technical assistance
that is central to our mission.
The importance of these two jurisdictions
and their leadership in developing our areas,
community violence intervention, the city and the county,
their efforts cannot be overstated.
And there's so much more to do.
Community-based organizations operating in this field
have deep roots in our communities,
and the heroic efforts to end the cycles of gun violence draw
upon hard won wisdom gained through lived experience.
But until recently,
too much of this work has happened at the margins
of our state's public policy, public safety efforts,
often staffed by volunteers,
usually with little to no funding,
and almost always denied the recognition
their contributions merit.
The statistics show the sad price of this oversight
while elsewhere in our nations as AG Cohen said,
have made long term investments in CVI
are seeing historic reductions in gun homicides,
our rates continue to rise, though this year is promising.
Nearly 30% increase in 2023 to 2022.
And we do see some promising trends this year.
Fortunately, today's meeting is evidence
that King County community violence practitioners
are finally embarking upon the long overdue period of growth,
not only in the community level outreach and intervention
that is the substance of their work,
but also in the hard effort in building the infrastructure
they will need to operate at their highest level over time.
This means enhancing organizational capacities,
like developing internal financial structures,
controls and policies,
defining protocols that ensure practitioners understand
and adhere to intervention models
and establishing data collection procedures
that allow them to track, measure,
and study their outcomes. It also means building
and strengthening a community of CVI practitioners
so they can coordinate, collaborate, aggregate,
and sustain their success.
This work is crucial,
not only because of the lives it promises to save,
but it also recognizes the importance of centering
and strengthening communities that have long been overlooked
and disempowered. Reducing community violence
requires more than interventions at key moments,
which are of course important.
CVI practitioners must also be empowered to act
over the long term as mentors
who recognize individual's potential
and as advocates who can facilitate
and access and provide,
facilitate access to essential resources
like education and training, behavior health services,
and even in some cases relocation assistance.
We can never lose sight of the tragic toll
that violence brings us here today.
But we must all begin paying more attention
to the new set of statistics,
that promise in time to brighten our horizon,
like the number of participants graduating from high school
or receiving counseling to address histories
of trauma or reductions in food insecurity
and increased access to job preparation.
This is an all-hands-on-deck day today.
It's also a new opportunity for all of us
with the united purpose,
whether at the community, county, state,
or federal level,
to be joined by our state's,
businesses and philanthropic communities.
Building up King County CVI ecosystem promises
a tremendous payoff and increased levels of safety
and shared wellbeing,
but we will need everyone's help to see it through.
I'm excited to announce the four organizations selected
for BJA Sub-Award funding and capacity building support.
They include our host this morning, Urban Family.
[ Applause ]
The other three are Pro Se Potential, De'Vonte'.
[ Applause ]
The Black Rose Collective, David Heppard.
[ Applause ]
And Freedom Project.
[ Applause ]
Please join me once again in congratulating
their leaders and staff
for their dedication to making our community safer.
[ Applause ]
The Center for Children and Youth Justice
looks forward to continuing to be a partner
with these organizations
and an ally in this critical important process,
not only today,
but in the weeks, months, and years to come.
And I'm so pleased that my first responsibility in this role
is to introduce our friends from Urban Family,
the organization sharing their beautiful home
with us this morning. Shantel and Paul Patu
know the needs of young people and families in their community
and share a vision for South Seattle,
King County of a healthy, vibrant community,
where youth and families feel safe, connected, and cared for.
Under their leadership,
Urban Family has created a distinctive space for youth
and emerging young adults
who are at a heightened risk of community violence.
Their dedicated staff here in the house
today walk alongside these individuals,
moving them, inspiring,
and supporting them to make better choices,
to fulfill their potential
and pay their gifts forward to future generations.
I am honored to introduce Urban Family's
Executive Director Shantel Patu.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, it's obvious I am short.
Thank you so much. There we go.
[ Exhales deeply ] Hi everyone.
My name is Shantel Patu and I am
the proud executive director and co-founder of Urban Family.
We are a grassroots organization dedicated to reducing
and eliminating gun violence
and the devastating effects of gun violence
in our King County communities.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our community partners,
Community Passageways, Southeast Network, the YMCA,
Freedom Project, Progress Pushers,
and many more in this critical work
of community violence interruption.
This is not merely a job, it's a calling.
Our work touches lives, transforms communities,
and shapes futures.
Yet too often, our efforts remain invisible,
our stories untold.
Allow me to share a personal story.
One close to my heart.
There was once a young woman, just 16,
lost in the world of hardship.
Grappling with homelessness, gang involvement,
life dealt her a difficult hand leaving scars
both visible and unseen. But beneath her tough exterior,
there was a spark, a yearning for something better.
One day this young woman found her way into our program,
her anger and defiance word shield,
protecting a weary heart that longed for understanding,
a listening ear and above all love.
We saw past the facade,
recognizing the lost child within,
and we opened our arms to her.
Through countless challenges and setbacks,
we stood by her side.
A constant source of support.
We offered her shelter, guidance,
and a sense of belonging,
and we became her family, her safe harbor.
We picked her up when she stumbled,
we bandaged her wounds, and we welcomed her into our home.
We walked with her through the darkness of addiction,
offering a safe space, unconditional love,
and a glimpse at a brighter future.
Today, that same young woman is a beacon of hope,
a testament to her resilience.
She's a thriving adult, a wonderful parent,
and a pillar in our community.
And she's overcome extraordinary adversity,
transforming her life, and inspiring countless others.
With a bachelor's degree in education
and a master's degree on the horizon,
she now dedicates her life to teaching,
nurturing the next generation,
the same warmth and care she once received, she gives back.
Her story is the heartbeat of Urban Family.
It shows that even in the face of overwhelming challenges,
hope can bloom. At Urban Family,
we ignite the spark of potential
within underserved Brown and Black communities,
Brown and Black youth,
empowering them to become strong,
self-aware, and impactful members of our society.
We build safe havens, fostering connections, and equipping them
to navigate the critical journey from youth to young adult.
We cultivate a transformative environment
where our core values of mentorship and life coaching,
resilience, leadership, and impact guide our every action.
We believe in the inherent potential of every young person,
equipping them with tools and resources they need to thrive.
We foster deep connections through meaningful guidance,
nurturing, self-discovery, and goal achievement.
Urban Family is more than an organization,
we are a lifestyle. A way of life
where we are committed to fostering safe, healthy,
and thriving communities.
We believe that every individual,
regardless of their background,
deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Our mission to weave a web of care and support
around Black and Brown
communities by providing positive youth programs
and family support and neighborhood safety is something
my team does every day.
And now it's time to shine light on the invisible heroes
who are working tirelessly to combat gun violence.
It's time to recognize the transformative power
of community violence intervention.
I say this quote every time I speak,
a child who was not embraced by the village
will burn it down to fill its warmth.
I'll say that one more time,
a child who was not embraced by the village
will burn it down to fill its warmth.
This African proverb serves as both a warning and a plea.
It is a call to action urging us to create communities
where every individual feels valued and connected.
Let us not wait for the flames of despair
to engulf our communities.
Let us be a village that embraces every child
that offers warmth and belonging.
Let us work together tirelessly and passionately
to build a future where every young person feels seen,
heard, and loved.
For in the end, it's not just about saving lives,
it's about creating lives worth living.
It's about building a world
where every child has the opportunity to thrive,
to contribute, and to leave their mark on this world.
This is why we created Urban Family, which means city family.
The city and the community
are responsible for the health and wellbeing of our families.
They make up our community, they add to our great nation,
this is who we are.
We are all Urban Family,
and together as a family, we can build a nation
where every child, every family,
and every community feels safe, connected, and cared for.
Thank you.
-So I called your names out but didn't introduce you.
So starting with Billy,
if you can just do the really quickly name and title
type of introduction,
and then I'm going to come back down the line
and ask you about what drives you to the work.
But we're just going to do -- we're going to start short.
-Sorry. Okay.
I was told on my introductions
to go no shorter than five minutes and no longer than six.
So I'll try to.
Now, I'm William Frank Hairston III,
but everybody just calls me Billy.
I'm the Director
of the Impact Programs at Center for Children and Youth Justice.
Most of you guys know us as CCYJ.
The impact programs
that includes our school engagement work,
our statewide Becca Task Force work, our CVI work,
which is our link,
which is our group in gang violence reduction model
that's funded by BJA as well as our county
gun violence reduction work
that's supporting the Regional Peacekeepers Collective.
And then we also partner with our policy team
on our JWAY work, which is our Justice for Washington Youth.
That's our juvenile justice policy and advocacy group.
-Clap at that for Billy. Good to be here.
I heard my wife's name and she said, you, there now.
Anyways I'm the Co-founder of Urban Family
and also Director of Strategy and Innovation.
It is my honor to serve the folks
that are on the front lines
and really give them space to grow in this work.
And so, really good to be here.
Thank you. Paul Patu. Thank you, Sean.
Appreciate you. -Hello everyone.
Billy did not prepare me for this.
He just said, could you sit on this panel?
I said, sure. He did me dirty, really.
My name is Francisca Madera.
I go by Fran, or everyone calls me Fran.
And I am a Juvenile Probation Counselor with King County,
and I sit on the Youth Link team.
I've been there since 2016. I looked it up.
So 2016, I've been on the Youth Link team.
Team two, team one was a couple years prior,
so I've been with the team for a long time, and thank you again.
-What's up family members?
I say that because there's a lot of people sitting in these seats
that I've worked with for a long time.
My name is Mark Rivers.
I'm the Deputy Director at Community Passageways
of our community safety teams, CVI work, right?
Our ambassadors, outreach workers,
as well as our critical incident response team
where we go out every single day and we try to support
our community by just showing up and being there
and being somebody that they can call and count on.
-Okay.
So that was the easy introduction.
-Yeah. -We're going to come back.
And the question to start us off
as we start to get into the conversation is,
what brings you to this work? What brings you to this work?
Start with you, Mark. -So for me, I was this work.
Growing up without a mother and a father,
and growing up at Granny's house.
And my mother and my father, that came back into my life.
But knowing what it feels like to be left alone,
to not have somebody to call,
somebody not to fill in the gap, right?
And as I went through sports and those coaches,
they became those adults that filled in the gap for me.
I want to show up for my community in the same way
and fill in the gap for our young people
who don't have nobody to call,
who don't have nobody to take them to get something to eat,
to challenge the way of thought.
And so I got an opportunity --
I didn't know it existed, actually.
For me,
I'm always going to support my friends and my family.
And I got told by my cousin,
like, he get paid to go into the hood
and make sure that the youth are good.
I said, you get paid for that?
Sign me up.
And so Eludra was my first supervisor
that gave me an opportunity to come do this work.
-Well, my role's a little, excuse me,
my role's a little different,
but I can tell you the main reason
that I continue to sit on the team is
because I love the collaboration
that I do with the community partners that are out there.
I can't tell you how many times -- I mean,
some of them are still here, some of them are not.
But that 100% the collaboration that I have with them,
to be able to call a community partner and say, hey,
so and so is in court, can you be there?
Or to know that I can reach out to specific organizations
that if a youth does need someone,
that's who I'm hooking them up with
because I trust those partners.
And to me, I mean, I have some of you on speed dial
and it is so, so helpful.
So I appreciate the work that you guys do.
-So I come to this work.
My parents are pillars in our community.
My mother has given her life to serving and educating people.
And my father has also welcomed our people
from South Pacific Islands here
and helped them to rebuild their lives.
While that was happening, I...
sibling, um...
five siblings was consumed with the neighborhood.
Came from good stock, good influence,
both my parents and I still was consumed by the streets.
This work for me is about redeeming what I missed out on
when I was younger.
And repairing the good name of my family
because I was definitely, you know,
I wasn't good news to my family.
House shot up, put my parents through a lot
following the influence,
the heavy influence of drugs, violence, gangs in my community.
And so I come to the work in a redemptive sense
and want young people to know that even
though you are a product of your environment,
you don't have to be.
And with the right love and support,
you can find your way.
So thank you.
-I'm going to stop going after Paul,
if we could adjust that, you know, I appreciate it.
Now, been asked this question a lot in different groups lately.
I think it's real simple.
I like the word I stole from you earlier, Brent, indebted.
I come to this work indebted.
I, like Mark and so many of us in this room
that do the work I was the work,
like, I was the kid that everybody chased after,
I was the kid that was stealing and kicking up dust
and running around.
And then I just happened to have folks around me that, you know,
when it was time to do the extra thing,
just wouldn't let me do it.
Just very indebted to the people around me
that pointed me in a different direction.
Not necessarily all the way out of the way,
but, you know, just stand over here while we go do this.
So just very much as I look into the work that comes to me
as I'm indebted to the people that press me into this space,
I'm specifically in this space because of someone else.
And I recognize that.
And then I look to find ways
to be that person for the next generation
or for the next person.
How do I serve in the same capacity that I was served in?
-Thanks, Billy.
So I'll share too, because it's only fair if I ask you all to.
And I'll say I got into the work of public service
to begin with having been through my own experiences of,
and exposure to violence,
particularly in high school and gangs and violence.
And also really seeing
how different young people were treated
by the same system actors,
depending on whether they were in honors and AP classes,
depending on how they dressed or how they looked,
or who they hung out with.
And having been in a couple of different spaces,
I was treated differently at different times
being the same person, but in different circumstances.
And it really opened my eyes to the power of systems.
It opened my eyes to the importance
of giving young people opportunities consistently,
opened my eyes to a lot of other stuff too.
But that's what motivated me to begin a career
in public service to begin with.
And so, as I think about my own professional trajectory, right?
Which has included working in local government
in New York City Department of Correction,
New York City Probation,
which if you would've told people
when I was in high school,
I was at New York City Correction and
New York City Probation, they would've laughed at you.
But having worked at the local level in those agencies
and now having worked in federal government
a couple times at the Office of Justice Programs
where we're funding communities,
where we're funding law enforcement at the local level,
where we're funding research
and statistical endeavors to really make sure
that our nation's response to crime and violence
is informed by evidence
and not just because we're mad at people.
We do a lot of stuff because we're mad at people.
And me as an individual being mad at somebody
and what my individual response is versus what the country's
system response should be,
shouldn't necessarily be one and the same,
because I hold our systems to a higher standard.
And so to be able to inform by best practice,
to be able to inform with research and data
is just so incredibly important.
And so as we transition here to the conversation about CVI,
I shared with some of you this morning, this work for me,
investing in CVI is so incredibly meaningful for me.
And to be able to sit in this seat at this moment in time
where we recognize the two-year anniversary
of the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention
Initiative, the first ever federal investment
at scale of CVI work,
the first ever real acknowledgement and recognition
of this local work that has been happening without recognition
and without funding for so long.
And the emphasis on collaboration
that we've placed on it and
that we know all of you have placed on it,
is just incredibly meaningful.
And so as we -- a few,
a couple months ago my colleague Betsy Pearl
and I and my predecessor, Amy Solomon
who was formerly the Assistant Attorney General at OJP,
we released a white paper called Reimagining Justice at Justice.
And it talked a little bit about what I mentioned earlier
in terms of the mission statement change,
and elevating the role of communities
as co-producers of public safety
alongside our traditional justice system partners.
It also talked about making our resources available
to organizations
that prior to this, and probably for some folks in this room,
never considered yourselves potential grantees
of the Department of Justice,
or potential sub-grantees of the Department of Justice,
or stakeholders of the Department of Justice.
And the truth is, you are. You are all of those.
And so we really focus on
how do we break down barriers to federal DOJ funding.
One of the strategies that we talk about in the paper,
and that's evidence today.
And being here in the space at Urban Family and hearing
from Paul and hearing from Shantel is like,
this is reimagining justice at justice in action.
It speaks to why we knew we needed to place the emphasis
on community and to empower community leaders.
And so this is reimagining justice at justice,
and one core component of that was the intermediary model.
And I'm going to turn to you, Billy here in just a moment,
because I want you to talk a little bit
about what CCYJ's role is in terms of being an intermediary
-- -- you are hoping to achieve through it.
And then we'll turn to Paul to talk a little bit
about what it feels like being a newly announced recipient
on the other side of that. -I'll try to be brief.
I've been thinking about this and trying to move our direction
and how this works in our ability to be in service
of community for our lane.
When we talk about community ecosystem or CVI ecosystem,
it's, everyone has a role to play.
And the role that we kind of see for ourselves
in this space is kind of threefold.
There's a number of different components to it.
One is kind of as a fiscal, right?
Like how do we hold and or draw down funds
that folks can access?
As you guys talk about,
this is the two-year anniversary and all the white --
we've been giving money to community-based organizations,
that's federal dollars for multiple years, right?
Like we have several partners in our site-based work
that are receiving federal dollars
and we've been creative in
how we've done that to allow them to have access.
So being a fiscal, secondly, right?
How do we do capacity building
and organizational development and things on the back end,
which we've also worked on in a number of different capacities,
even in other grants as well,
which we continue to build up that component.
And then as well as our training piece, right?
Like how do we give the tools to the workforce, right?
So that everybody has the same tools
and the same baseline toolbox
so that we're all operating on a consistent front.
So it's not just Mark being amazing at what he does,
or Trey being amazing at what he does.
So then they're able to reach people,
but then Billy goes out there and gets his ass kicked, right?
Like, so how do we make sure everybody has the baseline tool?
So one of the ways that we've done
that is went through our site-based work
by carrying model components and having vendor contracts.
So people that do the work can lean into their passion
and just do the work.
And then we house all the data and all those components.
And then another way that we've done it is we've continued
and we'll continue to build and work with Urban Family
as our back of house stuff in our capacity building.
And that is our Gina Cumbo's
and our compliance people and things like that
really just coming down here, coming into the space,
getting to work with the Shantel's
and everybody of the of the world
and really them leaning into the knife.
Especially one of the things that's tough about that
is it's all new
and it's all paperwork and it feels like oppression
probably right away, right?
Like we think about audit, right?
Like it's terrible.
But trying to help and put people in positions
to be audit ready and not doing that, it feels hard.
And so Shantel and Paul and those guys,
they're verily opened their arms
to us and just really embraced us
as we've leaned into that space as well.
And then with the training component,
they're pillars of the community
and they have partnerships and relationships
with everyone else.
So it allows us to then coordinate those trainings
and bring multiple people into the fold.
So that way we're working to have a baseline.
So everybody has the same tools to work with.
So I got to go before Paul, so I'm very excited, yes.
-So wow.
I believe that we've always had CEOs amongst us,
executive directors amongst us, leaders amongst us, right?
And so the brilliance of our community,
we've always known who we are,
but to interface with the system
has been the next evolution of our work.
And so for so long,
we're conditioned to believe the system is a certain way, right?
And it produces a certain result.
And as leaders,
we have always had the confidence that these --
I got asked one time by a CEO,
apartment community out of control.
They tried law enforcement, they tried security,
they were burning money like private business.
See him, they're cutting the ribbon
and they built this beautiful apartment complex.
And, you know, I looked at it,
the first thing I thought of was the good
that we can do because this is my neighborhood,
he built it in, right?
And so I basically ask him of like, hey,
this is a great facility and my imagination and vision
-- I love that you use that word imagination.
We have to start imagining things differently.
But for him, he was like, you know,
I offered my, you know, support.
And he's basically was like, oh, no,
the community will take ownership of this
and it'll be just fine, right?
He didn't know my neighborhood.
Within three months, assaults,
homicides, affordable housing inadvertently put
multiple families just looking for a place to stay.
Three different rival gangs in one neighborhood.
He calls me three months later and the first thing he says is,
do you really think you can help us with these people?
And I say, with all respect, sir, these people are my people.
And yes, I have solutions if you're willing to learn.
And so I think us reimagining and then creating space, right?
Dom's been a CEO since the streets, right?
And giving opportunities to people that are already gifted.
And we're basically, and it's not even --
like these are our tax dollars, right?
We are just redeploying our tax dollars
to empower the people from our community to serve our kids.
And so it isn't a stretch.
CCYJ has played a major role in that.
They are teaching us the ways of the system so that we can,
you know, get good credit, no play.
Get a loan without -- yeah.
So anyways but thank you for the question.
I appreciate it. -Thanks Paul.
And I'm going to come to you next.
-I was going to say JOP I could not go after them.
-Listen, I'm going to go on a monologue for a minute
and then I'm coming to you, don't worry.
And then Mark, I've got a question for you after,
but Paul, as you were talking about -- --
you know, he thought he could just do this in the community
without knowing the community.
And I mean, that's something that we see all the time,
even with the best of intentions.
When I was at the New York City Department of Probation,
we were doing, in my humble, not so humble opinion here,
incredible work to really re-envision
what probation looked like in the city
to change the relationship
between the New York City Probation Department
and the communities most impacted by probation.
To change the relationship between people on probation
and the probation officers.
I remember one of the first meetings,
the probation officer is like,
well, we have to call them offenders.
Do you? Can you call them clients?
Well then it sounds like we're trying to help them.
Yes. That's what we're doing. And so, you know,
we try to change the culture of the department
and successfully did it.
And just so proud of the work
that we did in New York City Probation during those years.
But there was a moment that stands out at me
where I was sitting at this table
and we were talking about the changes
we were going to make because we had launched
something called the Neighborhood Opportunity
Network, which completely changed
how probation showed up in community.
And someone led the presentation, they said,
and we're going to open it up on this street.
And I lived in the South Bronx at the time.
My wife had grown up in the South Bronx since high school.
You know, I was a transplant, but she wasn't.
And I was like, well, has anybody talked to the community?
Do we know that the South Bronx is good with this and this,
and not just the South Bronx,
but this particular neighborhood in the South Bronx.
And everybody was like, no, but it's a good thing.
We're going to -- it's going to help.
And I was like,
yeah, it's going to help if the community's bought in,
if the community's here from the ground level,
if they've got input into what that looks like,
if they believe that this is really there for good.
And so it spawned a whole effort where we had to change the way
we thought about doing good for communities,
because we had to do good for communities
in partnership with community.
You know, similar to what Nancy was talking about.
It's not research on, it's research with.
It can't be good for, it's got to be good with, right?
And so that was a foundational learning experience for me
at probation,
because I was the person getting hot at the table,
like, well, what have you thought about?
And then when I turned around, I ended up being the person,
they were like, well, fine, you do it.
And so then I had to lead that.
And it was really instrumental.
But, you know, seeing our law enforcement partners here,
Chief Bo and Assistant Chief Kasner,
just grateful for you being here, right?
And because it talks to,
speaks to the system perspective and the agencies
that we have in the room also being partners in this work
with community-based organizations in a way
that I think doesn't always get written in print
or doesn't always get lifted up
as this is the core work of policing
or the core work of doing probation.
But it's got to be the core work of policing.
It's got to be the core work of doing probation work.
Because if you don't know your community,
you can't serve your community.
And so engaging community leaders like Urban Family,
like CCYJ, like Community Pathways, right?
And so this is my, I told you I was going to go for a monologue,
but now I'm coming to you Francisca.
As you think about your role and the work
that you do with Link
and your long engagement with the organizations here,
you know, how do you use that partnership
and that collaboration to really improve outcomes
for the young people that are on your cases,
on your caseload?
-Oh, well, like I had mentioned earlier,
I mean, I try my hardest to let young people's youth,
is what I call them, youth on my caseload.
If I know that they're working with a community partner,
I'm messaging them versus email, versus text,
saying, hey, it might be a completely last minute.
I will, I haven't in a long time,
but I will go out into the community
with a community provider if needed just to check up.
I will say that I'm working with a young person.
I actually, I just transferred him,
but I had his older brother on my caseload for many years.
And the provider
that had connected me with him got me kind of the in with him
as well as his like group
[no audio]
So it was really, really hard to transfer him.
But I mean, I don't know if I can --
if any probation officer really could get
a community partner the way that I have collaborated with them,
they would be -- it would make their job so much easier.
And some people fight it,
but honestly, I would just say keep pushing them
because you are more important in their life
than -- you will see them beyond probation.
And I say that when I say, hey, I'm doing a referral for Link.
I will tell them they are going to be with you
beyond the point of me.
Like I'm just here for a couple, a little bit.
And then your probation's here for a year.
You got them forever.
You can call me, but this is the only thing I tell kids,
and obviously I'm still here, so I haven't,
but I will tell the kids I will be here
until I win the million dollars, the lottery.
And obviously I'm going on 20 years,
so I'm still here.
But yes, that's my one piece of advice
for any community partner,
if you know a youth that is on probation,
push that probation officer, reach out to Link
if you need to, and they'll connect you with me
and I'll give you, you know, I'll give you numbers,
I'll give you court dates, I don't mind.
But we need those extra voices in the courtroom.
-Thank you.
You know, there's something you said there.
I've got them for a year. You've got them forever, right?
And the facts of the matter is,
especially when we're talking about young people,
but even when we're talking about emerging adults,
18 to 24 or adults who've had contact with the system,
the vast majority of people
after they come in contact with the justice system,
stay in communities.
And for those who do go into the deep end of the system,
whether it's juvenile placement, or jail, or prison, guess what?
They're coming home too. And so as we think about
how do we engage with those most at risk for involvement in
or at risk for victimization of gun violence,
those closest to some of the problems
that we're trying to address,
it can't be a punishment only philosophy
because we've got to engage those people in the best
possible way and give them a better path
because we've got them forever, right?
We've got them forever.
Even if you take somebody off the street
for a small period of time,
that's a snippet of time.
We've got them forever.
And so what does engagement in their life
looks like that really brings the type of pro-social behavior
and ideally leadership that we want to see
so that they're helping the next generation of young people
or even their own generation, right, make better decisions.
So Mark, we've talked a bit about why CVI is so important,
how is a critical compliment
to a traditional law enforcement approach.
How, in my opinion,
and the Department of Justice
comprehensive approach to reducing violence
is a central pillar of a community safety infrastructure.
But we haven't talked in depth about what is CVI.
Can you take us through a little bit about,
how does your program work?
What is CVI from your perspective,
and give us an example of
how you know this is making a difference.
-Yeah.
So under the leadership of the great Dom Davis.
-The great.
-Yeah, the great Dom Davis, yeah.
It's really a collection of adults
that are indigenous to their community that actually care.
Care enough to keep showing up even when the youth,
the young people are stuck in their ways
and are running away from you.
They coined the phrase these days, relentless engagement.
So that's meeting them where they're at,
not waiting on them to come to you,
but going to their house, going to talk to that mother,
listen to her cry about her baby,
going to meet with him down in the juvenile
or in the jail cell, talking to him,
coming up with a plan,
and then him coming out and maybe disappointing you
and still showing up for him after that or her.
The secret sauce is relationship.
Can't do anything in this work without relationship.
And oftentimes as we all were like,
we're stuck in our adolescence,
we're stuck in our team thoughts,
and we don't think that what we're doing is wrong.
We're just trying to survive.
Dad might be in jail,
mom might be working, might be no food in the house,
I got influences outside, my friends,
I'm outside and I'm surviving the best way that I know how.
And so when Mark, he pulls up on us on the block,
Mark, I'm not trying to hear that.
Go get a job. I'm not trying to hear that.
Well, let's start a business.
Oh, yeah, let's do that. I'll meet with you on Tuesday.
Be there and they're not there.
And so I call his friend because I got everybody's number.
Where you guys at?
Oh, we're at the park and I'm pulling up
and we're going to sit there.
We're going to have a conversation about what
they really want in their life,
and they're going to see that no matter
where they're at I'm going to pull up.
We have examples actually in this space of this work
actually working.
We have people that are part of,
we have employees that are part of Urban Fam
that I used to pull over,
do U-turns, hop out in the middle of the street,
tell them to get in the car,
take them to go get something to eat,
and they're back outside fighting tomorrow.
And guess what?
Tomorrow I'm going to pull up, bust a U-turn,
and do the same thing.
We also have a great example sitting in the front row
and Trey,
who started off as one of the young people
that everybody was trying to chase down.
And Trey ended up working with me.
I was a supervisor where he gave me hell.
At alive and free.
But to watch Trey's maturation and him go from this young kid
with all this energy who didn't necessarily know
where he was going,
then to grow into one of the best outreach workers
I've ever seen in my life.
And now to serve...
[ Applause ]
And as the kids say, that's no cap.
That's truth.
But to watch somebody with the same passion
that I had go out there and serve, and now to be at CCYJ
and be connected to this full ecosystem,
that's how we know it works.
-So much to pull out of that.
The fact that you know they're going to disappoint you
and your job as the responsible adults who have said,
this is the work I'm going to do with my life,
is to show up again the next day.
You know, the adolescent brain doesn't finish developing
until you're about 25, especially for males.
So we think about 18 as this magic age.
We're like, oh, you should have your stuff together now.
It's like,
well, it's not really how it works biologically, right?
And so that's not to excuse behavior from people
who are less than 25.
And you talked a lot about a lot of things, Mark,
about things
that a young person might be dealing with in real time.
And they're just trying to survive the best way
that they know how.
Again, that doesn't excuse actions
they may take that harm others,
but it gives us some insight into their behavior.
It gives us some insight into where they're coming from.
And so that relentless engagement
that you talked about, right?
That willingness to show up over and over and over again,
even after they disappoint you in hopes
and with the intention of preventing harm to themselves
or to others from occurring.
I mean, it's how you save lives.
-Sure. -Right?
You literally prevent that thing from happening
by engaging that young person,
whether they're a 16-year-old or a 24-year-old over
and over and over again. Paul, can you,
you know, I know you've got lots of examples and Shantel,
you shared one with us earlier,
but can you share another example of how you know the work
that you're doing day in,
day out is making an impact on people's lives?
-My inspiration this morning was the word compassion.
And compassion to me is entering into the suffering
of someone else and knowing their story.
There's even a saying
that says an enemy is someone's story you do not know.
The way I know this is working is
because I know the stories of my community and my work.
I know the story of Tory and Jamani.
Tory's biggest advocate is Grandma Lola.
Grandma Lola is a glue to their family.
Grandma Lola's up there in age,
but she's a feisty something.
And she has demonstrated relentless engagement
of her grandsons.
She's great-grandmother, right?
Jamani talked to him this morning.
He came, he's a new hire, my brother came in flip-flops.
And --
-Sorry Jamani, he went off script.
-He was like, no, hold up.
I'm going somewhere this. I'm going somewhere.
-Both of us, we all know.
-I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere.
But Jamani's story,
he's one of the smartest kids in this neighborhood.
He can hold conversations at any level.
When I went to pick up Jamani,
when he was released from the juvenile detention center,
went to pick Granny Lola got her a fish filet
or something that she wasn't supposed to be eating.
She made me pick up anyways.
But I come to Woodinville because he's at school.
While he's locked up,
they have him participating in football, high school,
come to the front office,
first thing lady says is, you're Jamani Owens mentor, aren't you?
And then the next second, Hey, you're Jamani --
like his name was ringing.
And the whole school, this is the same kid
that is a general in his neighborhood gang,
but they don't know him like that.
Police don't know him like that.
How is it possible that this young man is known in one space,
the whole school is singing his praises, right?
And then in the neighborhood that he's from,
there are no opportunities.
He has more opportunity to buy a gun
than he is to get his summer job.
There's more opportunities for him to get drugs
than there is opportunities for him to do right.
And so, understanding and knowing where they come from,
knowing their story,
entering into their suffering and their pain.
The reason why I know this works is
because they are the fruit of our labor.
This labor of love, Urban Family.
Over 75% of our workforce are kids
that we have been walking with for years.
We planted those seeds years ago.
But thank God those seeds are starting to come into fruition.
And the same guy that showed up in flip-flops
is going to change the world.
That's how I know it's working.
[ Applause ]
-Jamani, you didn't know you were going to be
a focus of this panel.
-No. -I tried not to.
-I thought you was going to do it on purpose.
-Mar Rivers; Listen, I tried not to on purpose.
-We appreciate you.
-Yeah, that's all good.
-Proud of you.
So Billy, I'm going to bring it back to you.
There's obviously a lot of good stuff
that's happening right now in the CVI space.
This is sort of a watershed moment nationally
for a community violence intervention
where it's part
of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, right?
One of the only pieces of gun related legislation in 30 years,
and CVI had funding in it.
We've gotten annual appropriations
from a bipartisan set of Congress
outside of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
two years in a row, three years in a row, excuse me.
So that's a big recognition from Capitol Hill.
You've got a Department of Justice that has said,
this is a pillar of our work.
And we are going to implement it with fidelity
by listening to the field, and credit to Eddie
and so many others who have been around the country
constantly to hear from the experts,
to hear from you all.
And obviously Eddie brings his experience having run
CVI programs in Chicago,
but making sure that our work was first
and foremost informed by your work, right?
So this is, I think, in a lot of ways, a watershed moment.
But it's also a critical moment
where we have to take stock and say, okay, where do we --
where does CVI go from here?
How do we make sure that this isn't a fad or a trend?
But this is ingrained as a really core part of the way
we advance safety in our communities in good times
and in bad times, right?
We know numbers fluctuate, and I talk about numbers,
but we're talking about people's lives.
We know that as much
as we are trying to prevent a single homicide,
because we don't want to lose a single person to violence,
we know that some -- we're not there yet.
I'll say it that way.
And unfortunately, we know that the numbers of people
who die go up and down as much as we try to --
and we're near historic lows.
I know, in Seattle, we've got we're on a good trend this year,
but it's been a bumpy few years.
And so given that CVI has to be ingrained as part of our robust,
comprehensive response to community violence,
it can't be a year-to-year decision.
So given that sort of lead in,
what do you think are the most promising areas
for growth for the CVI field? And what,
if you had to say one or two challenges or concerns
you have on the horizon for the field?
-I would say my first concern is that you asked me
the hardest question out of all the last six questions.
No, that's a great question.
So just let me make sure I'm hearing it right.
It's like, what are things that are areas of growth?
And then what are things that are maybe concerning?
So when we think growth, we're thinking strength based, right?
Like, where are we -- -Like opportunities for us.
-Man, well,
I would say one of the amazing opportunities here
is we have some of the most amazing people in the space,
in the work, man.
When we think of our continuum of care,
we think of our BSK money,
and we think of our young people and our emerging adults.
We have organizations all the way through the whole continuum.
So we have kind of the intervention,
the prevention, and the restoration piece kind of
really kind of kicking off here.
I think opportunities or areas of growth
is we kind of see ourselves as CCYJ as a convener
and a collaborator.
We very much understand that our work is grounded
in our ability to have relationships, right.
And collaborate with community and systems.
I'd say an area of growth is us finding better ways
to do that and better ways to bring more folks into the fold
and be more inclusive because there are so many people
that are doing great work
that just aren't all connected in the web of support
that we could do.
And I think that would uplift our community in an amazing way.
I know you've mentioned Seattle several times,
but really, like, we do work in Seattle, right?
But like, this is a collective
that does work throughout the county, right?
And where we're really hurting is
in Seattle and South King County.
And a lot of these organizations overlap, man,
multiple school districts, multiple jurisdictions,
law enforcement, all of that kind of stuff.
So figuring out better ways to just be more inclusive
and in collaboration of both systems and community partners
is definitely kind of an area of growth.
Always an area of growth is how do we find ways
to functionally fund the work where it's not,
like you said, a one-to-two-year thing,
but where is our line item funding?
Where is our this is what we do.
And it's there every year, and it's always consistent,
and we know how to --
we know what those numbers are going to look like year to year
and we can prepare and prep for those things.
I would also say, as we talk about that line item funding,
and when we talk about community ecosystem
and a public health approach,
when we look at law enforcement and their funding in that,
like, not necessarily reducing their funding,
but the way they receive their funding is upfront, right?
Whereas all of our community based organizations
have to do their funding by fundraising,
having money, doing the work for free,
and then being reimbursed for it, right?
So how do we become or structure our process
so that our community based organizations can receive
their money the same way probation does
and law enforcement and things like that
so they can be more proactive in how they do the work.
And when we talk about that training piece
and that professional development piece.
Having a baseline for all of our organizations for toolkits.
So we all know that,
whether it's Community Passageways, and RPKC work,
or whether it's Pro Se Potential and Link work, right?
Like all of our young people are getting the same support
and same services as far as what the outreach workers bring.
So I'd say those are kind of our areas of growth.
Are we doing some of that right now?
Like absolutely right. we have great collaborations.
We have people like Mark that is constantly a headache for me
and tells me no all the time for everything,
but then brings everybody to the table
and makes sure everybody gets the training
and make sure everybody's on the same page.
And whether that's his organization
or even him reaching out to other organizations
and bringing them to the table.
So we're working on that as a community.
But definitely we could lean into the knife
more there and be better.
And then what was the second part of that?
-No, you -- -Did I get them both.
I talk fast. I'm trying to rip and run.
So yeah. -You got them both.
So I know we got started a few minutes late
on this part of the conversation,
but we're going to end on time.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to throw
one more question out to the group.
It's actually, I'm going to give you a choice on question,
and then I'll wrap us up here at the end.
Mark, I want to come to you first
and we'll go down the line this way.
So you get to choose which question to answer.
Either, what is your hope or vision for CVI
as we look towards the future
or what more can policy makers be doing to support the work
that you're doing?
Policy makers could be us, it could be local policy makers.
What do you need from government to support your work?
Choose either one.
-I think I can answer both of them like with one answer.
We need sustainability. We need to be earmarked.
We need to be funded for as long as it takes.
Don't ask me to go outside,
do the relentless engagement with a young person
who has 18 years of trauma,
and you want me to unpack all this trauma
and help him heal in a year, in six months.
[ Applause ]
It's to a point disrespectful to the human life.
To the trauma that he's went through,
or she's went through all her life.
It's disrespectful to us as being the humans
who actually care about that life
and want to do the best that we can,
but we only have this limited amount of time
so we're trying to race through. And we actually just want,
with integrity to serve that young person in them,
because we see ourselves in them.
And so it's just sustainable funding.
How do we again, get it earmarked,
make sure that it's respected and it can last.
And so we actually can see like real change in our communities
in the next 10, 15, 20, and 30 years.
And we're not still doing the same work that me and Eddie
have been doing all this time.
We still shouldn't be at baseline.
At some point, if you water something, it should grow.
So there may be a lack of water. -I really like that.
And I like that you're saying like,
you know, continue to water something, my biggest,
and I shout this all the time, say to Billy a number of times
I think collaborating.
I wish the people that are giving the money,
the higher ups are seeing what people are actually doing.
Whether it's probation, whether it's the community partner,
like actually speak to them you know,
get to know what they're doing.
I mean, there's such a misconception,
I think, of what community partners may be doing,
what probation may be doing.
But ask those questions and just try to,
you know, collaborate because that is the only way
I think it's going to be successful in some way or other.
But yeah, I do love your answer.
So I'm going to keep mine short.
-Thank you. Appreciate the question.
I wanted to first do real quick, I'll take the liberty to --
Angela Moussa, can you please stand up?
Daryl Powell, Njuguna, and then the Bethea's.
These are the board members that,
well, some of our board members that help make power the work.
And so I just wanted to acknowledge, you know,
it's a very selfless job,
but these guys do incredible work,
and they're very successful in their own personal careers,
but they help to power this work.
Round of applause. Thank you, guys, for showing up.
So innovation, innovation, reimagining systems,
being thought partners and bringing us into space
so that we can help reimagine how things could be.
Thank you for that.
As a seed planted, I think that when it's done like that,
more things can happen, right? More things can happen.
And so, one minute.
And then also, this is off script,
but hiring people who can hear us, that are from us,
Eddie, thank you, man.
You make us feel at home, even though, you know,
and so being able to hire people that look like us,
that share our story that can code switch White House,
let's go. But bringing us together,
the philanthropic community, law enforcement,
spent time at a coffee shop.
And this is the biggest thing, and I'll leave you this,
this is seed planted, right?
Stop starting with the deep end of issues.
We're going to end world hunger.
Get everyone that works in world hunger to the table.
You start at the deep end, it never works.
Start at the shallow end with their name.
How they grew up, their story.
I spent time at a coffee shop with someone
who was completely different from me.
He was a former captain police.
We clearly had different ideas of public safety.
And it showed up at a community meeting.
And instead of just staying enemies,
I invited him to coffee.
And for 30 minutes we talked about everything,
but what we came there to talk about,
and we found more in common
than we did that we didn't have in common.
And that was the gift of that moment,
is that we didn't start off with all this heavyweight stuff,
but we leaned in.
It takes more time.
It's definitely the longer route,
but it is the right route, is the human route.
So thank you.
-What were my options? What were the questions?
I got lost with Paul. Paul gets going, I just zone in.
I'd be like dropping jewels --
-So in just about one minute
either your vision or hope for CVI or what you need from us.
-Obviously we need more money from you.
So if you could sign the check today,
that would be awesome.
But no, structurally, I mean,
my hope is similar to kind of like Mark, like one,
how do we fund it,
but two, like how do we build better collaborations, right?
And how do we better serve our young people, one, right?
And that's the foundational piece, right?
That's the mission.
How do we serve the young people,
but also how do we serve the young people
that are serving the young people, right?
So we can continue the work, right?
So really when we think about how is it sustainable, right?
And how do we build it versus not just our funding,
but like, what are the processes to keep it functional?
Like, are we serving the people that serve the young people
so that way they can show up and be elite in their passion.
And I look forward to finding ways creatively with you guys.
You know, hopefully in D.C.
while I'm waiting for Eddie to come home,
come back from the White House
and we can hang out in your cool office or whatever.
But again,
but just really finding ways to be creative with
both the systems folks and community folks and state
and local folks to how do we serve the people
that are doing the work so they can show up at the best.
-Sure. Thanks Billy.
So I've -- So tomorrow we are anticipating and expecting
the president to announce the next round of CVI awards.
The work that we have done so far,
we're extremely proud of it.
We're extremely proud to support partners
like CCYJ and Urban family
and so many other organizations across the country,
either through direct awards or through sub sub-awards.
But we're far, we know we are far from done
because there are still people who are losing their lives
and therefore our work is not over.
And what that work looks like,
it requires us to have a comprehensive approach
to reducing violence.
And that includes CVI as a central pillar
of that work alongside our support
for traditional law enforcement approaches to this work.
And so we're excited
and looking forward to tomorrow's announcement
where we anticipate new awards being announced for the FY24,
meaning that we can bring more support
to more communities across the country
and to really build on some of the work
we're seeing at a local level,
including right here in King County.
And so, please join me in thanking this panel,
first and foremost.
[ Applause ]
Please join me in thanking the organizations
who have hosted us here today and all of our partners
whether they're direct grantees or not direct grantees,
whether --
but folks who are just doing this work here locally,
all of you, huge thanks for the work
that you're doing here in King County.
[ Applause ]
And finally, let me just say what an honor
and a privilege it has been to share space with you all.
To hear about the work that you're doing,
the approach that you take. It's not the same.
And yet there are so many similarities in saying,
how do we get what's best for that young person
and help lift that young person out of their worst mistakes
or perhaps their current situations.
And I just have such a tremendous appreciation
for the work that you do,
for the work that all of you do and grateful
that we're able to do this nationally
because of what's happening locally in places like here.
Thank you everybody for joining us today.
[ Applause ]