We seek to prevent disorder and violence by working directly in and with the communities that are most affected by crime.
In the South Bronx and central Brooklyn, we’re mobilizing local voices, including former gang members, and training them to end gun violence. Our community justice centers in Brownsville, Red Hook, and Harlem seek to ameliorate the causes of violence through employment and reentry programs. Our youth programs provide educational and leadership opportunities for at-risk young people. Our work on placemaking engages communities to revitalize public spaces, promoting neighborhood resilience and safety. We help coordinate the Minority Youth Violence Prevention initiative, a program of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Office of Minority Health, bringing together public health organizations, law enforcement agencies, and community-based groups to curb violence and reduce disparities in access to public health among at-risk minority youth across the U.S. And, we work to combat domestic violence, seeking to reduce harm, enhance victim safety, and hold offenders accountable.
Initiatives
Brownsville Community Justice Center
The Brownsville Community Justice Center works to reduce crime and incarceration, and strengthen community trust in justice in central Brooklyn.
Make It Happen
Make It Happen helps young men between the ages of 16 and 24 who have experienced violence acquire the tools necessary to overcome traumatic experiences.
Minority Youth Violence Prevention Initiative
With a focus on treating violence as a disease, this initiative links public health agencies, community groups, and law enforcement in an effort to curb violence.
Red Hook Community Justice Center
The nation's first multi-jurisdictional community court, the Red Hook Community Justice Center seeks to solve neighborhood problems in southwest Brooklyn.
Save Our Streets (S.O.S.)
Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) seeks to end gun violence at the neighborhood level by changing local norms.
On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, an introduction to the origins, programming, and community impact of Neighbors in Action, formerly known as the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center. Neighbors in Action works to make the central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant safer and healthier for all.
On our New Thinking podcast, an audio portrait of Make It Happen, our program working with young men of color in Crown Heights, Brooklyn affected by violence. Through interviews with participants and practitioners, the episode explores the intersections of trauma, involvement with the justice system, and the lived experience of race.
These guiding principles were created as part of the Abusive Partner Accountability and Engagement Training and Technical Assistance Project, an initiative funded by the Office on Violence Against Women. They are designed to inform abusive partner intervention programming (APIP), also known as battering intervention, at all stages of intervention—development, implementation, and evaluation. The goal of the principles is to enhance not only programs but also the broader community response to accountability and engagement for people who cause harm through intimate partner violence (IPV).
Christina Swarns argues against the dangerousness assessment that is being considered as a bail determinant in New York City. Citing our research, including the impact evaluation of the Center's SOS Brooklyn and "Closing Rikers Island" report, she advocates that these evaluations would not make our justice system better or our communities safer, rather they would further entrench discrimination into an already biased legal system.
Center researchers explain how their experience and credibility influenced how they approached interviewing New York City youth for our study on gun violence, "Gotta Make Your Own Heaven." They share the importance of centering community voices through this anecdotal narrative of their experience.
In Slate, John Pfaff compares gun violence reduction strategies in both Philadelphia and New York City, citing our August 2020 report that looks at reducing this type of violence by addressing the root causes, often systemic, that negatively impact already marginalized communities.