Agreement - Goodwill Industries of Michiana - Outreach Team to Support Group Violence Intervention

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U, Xecutive Sumum Gun violence is a serious problem in U.S. cities and South Bend, Indiana is not immune to this trend. In 2014 the gun homicide rate in South Bend was 10.8 per 100,000 people. This is well above even the .national average of 3.43 gun homicides per 100,000 people. In 2014 the South Bend community started a new initiative to address gun violence in the city, the South Bend Group Violence Initiative (SBGVI). This initiative unites community leaders around a common goal, to stop gun violence and keep South Bend's highest risk citizens alive and out of prison. Based on a proven model developed. by David M. Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC), SBGVI advocates direct, sustained engagement with street groups that are responsible for the majority of South Bend's gun. violence. The strategy empowers community members to set clear moral standards against violence in their communities and reclaim a voice in the way they want to live. It coordinates the efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement to focus crime prevention efforts on the groups most associated with gun violence. SBGVI also draws on the expertise of social service providers to offer group members a path away from violence. The SBGVI has already reduced the percent of group based shootings in its first year and half of operations, but there is still opportunity to make South Bend are even stronger community that works together for peace. An important way to avoid the escalation of group -based conflicts, interrupt revenge shootings, and create a culture of non-violent conflict resolution is through community outreach. Although SBGVI has been doing some community outreach through the Violent Crime Impact Unit (VCIU) in the South Bend Police Department, which makes a concerted effort to reach out to the community after shots have been fired, police do not have the time or community trust to implement sustained community outreach. Therefore, SBGVI is proposing the creation of a Violent Crime Impact Outreach Unit (VCIOU). The yCIOU will be housed in the social services department at Goodwill as part of the Group. Violence Initiative. The VCIOU will be based on a national street worker outreach program from the NNSC. Individuals hired to be "streetworkers" will be assigned to specific communities in South Bend. They will be visible in the communities they work in and through relationship building, the communities will view them as trusted individuals who are there to prevent and respond to gun violence. Streetworkers will specifically respond to all shooti ig reports in their area, work to interrupt retaliatory shootings and create a culture of peace in their communities. The streetworkers will be members from the community who share a similar background to those they will be working with. As other research has indicated, streetworker outreach programs result in great success in making communities feel supported as well as helping reduce the rates of gun violence. National conversations around the rising rates of gun violence highlight the ineffectiveness of traditional law enforcement strategies in stopping this trend. South Bend has an exciting opportunity to implement a streetworker outreach program that has shown results in decreasing rates of violence. The creation of the VCIOU will improve and extend South Bend's already impressive results in decreasing gust violence by promoting nonviolence, de-escalating and interrupting group -based conflicts and working to create a culture of peace alongside the South Bend community.