Expanding Violence Interruption and Prevention Services in East Harlem

The proposed project is an enhancement of a community-based violence intervention and prevention initiative currently operating in East Harlem, which is characterized by poverty, disproportionate gun violence and the highest murder rate of all police precincts in New York City.

Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO) is an organization addressing the broad needs of young people throughout New York City impacted by the criminal legal system. Through its Stand Against Violence East Harlem (SAVE) youth violence-intervention and prevention program, it reduces violence, creates connections, builds healthy families, develops leaders, and scales results with teaching and technical assistance in East Harlem.  SAVE uses the evidence-based Cure Violence model, which will be expanded and enhanced through the proposed project.

Specific enhancements include an expanded and strengthened working group of community-based partners, which will engage in strategic program planning and community outreach to identify and carry out effective violence prevention programming.  In addition, the proposed project addresses the unmet and trauma-based mental health needs of the community population by integrating and expanding the expertise of GOSO and its partners to provide both emergency/triage mental health care, as well as ongoing therapeutic care.  

GOSO seeks priority consideration 1A.  The service area and target population for the project are 95% Black or Latinx, and are considered historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality.  The proposed project will contribute to greater access to trauma-informed mental health services for these populations.  See pages 1, 2, 7, and 10 for support of this request.

While we are not currently working in partnership with John Jay College, we have relationships with key faculty and staff there and would be receptive to working with them on an evaluation of our programming if they are applying for companion funding.