#youth-violence-prevention

#youth-violence-prevention

Following his death, Jones Burrell took over the running of her son's boxing club, as a way to try to steer young people away from knife crime. But she says it is only recently that she has started to feel a sense of change. Teenage homicide, which hit record levels in 2021, is at its lowest in more than a decade and in the borough of Lambeth, police say knife crime offences have fallen by 35% in the past year.

Over a dozen teenagers gathered in the fenced-off courtyard of Harlem's Peace Cafe on a Thursday evening after school. As the young men warmed up with jumping jacks and sit-ups, Josh Marte, their youth mentor, hung up the punching bag and laid out Everlast boxing gloves over a banner that read, "I AM PEACE." The lesson wasn't only about self-defense: Marte talked to the group about regulating emotions, building a brotherhood, and de-escalating violence in their neighborhood.

Talking to our community-based violence interrupters to see, do we understand if there any sort of retaliation that might happen that we can get in front of? So, we can stop the violence in the moment? But a lot of the work happens in the days after that, and into this week,

On Tuesday, he will introduce a resolution calling on city leaders to fund violence prevention programs for the neighborhood's youth, who he says are getting caught up in the area's drug and crime troubles. Across the city, programs like these are credited with reducing violence by helping young people who might otherwise be recruited by criminal enterprises with after-school programs, job training opportunities, or just a space to hang out.