Trump cuts targets Newark’s most effective anti-violence program-Opinion

By Rey Chavis and Alex S. Vitale

NJ.COM

Members of the Newark Community Street Team (NCST), which works with an entire ecosystem of community-based organizations that provide mediation and trauma services, perform community outreach and education, and work with those at greatest risk of involvement with violence. Newark Community Street Team

Over the last 10 years, Newark has made tremendous strides in reducing violence. Homicides are at the lowest level in over 60 years and violent crime across the board is at historic lows.

At the center of this dramatic change has been the city’s commitment to supporting community based violence reduction initiatives such as Newark Community Street Team (NCST), which works with an entire ecosystem of community-based organizations that provide mediation and trauma services, perform community outreach and education, and work with those at greatest risk of involvement with violence.

Unfortunately, one of the important sources of funding for this work was eliminated by the Trump administration, resulting in significant cutbacks that endanger the progress that has been made.

Building a community-centered model

In 2014 Mayor Ras Baraka brought in Aqeela Sherrills from Los Angeles to create NCST as a community centered organization that would work to resolve disputes on city streets to reduce the violence.

Research shows that most community violence is not driven by organized crime or even gangs, but instead is the result of interpersonal disputes that escalate to violence. This violence too often engenders an ongoing cycle of retaliation.

Groups like NCST employ grassroots “high risk interventionists,” who leverage their relationships in the community to reach those who have experienced violence and may want to retaliate. They utilize those connections to try and steer people away from violence and engage them in essential services and pro-social activities like undertaking trauma counseling, re-enrolling in school, or agreeing to mediation.

Since its creation, NCST has been able to expand its operations to include a free community centered trauma recovery center, substance use services, and programs to provide safe passage for students traveling to and from school. In addition, they do regular community outreach in areas where violence has occurred and involve residents in its Sentinel program of community education about the causes and solutions to violence.

The power of redemption and federal support

This work has relied on a combination of local, state, federal, and philanthropic grants. In 2022 the Biden administration created a significant new funding stream that brought millions of dollars into Newark to support this work.

The Biden grants allowed groups like NCST to expand their operations in terms of scope and also the depth of services. Because the grants were for three years it also allowed for some long-term planning. Further, the imprimatur of federal funding from the U.S. Department of Justice served to legitimize the work in the eyes of local and state officials, some of whom have been skeptical of this new approach.

One of the ways in which organizations like NCST help reduce violence is by being a lifeline to those who have been involved in street violence but want to make a change in their life. NCST has been able to hire people in this situation so that they can both share their message with the next generation of young people and work to heal themselves in the process.

The field of Community Violence Intervention (CVI) offers a rare and redeemable path —especially for those with justice-involved backgrounds — to reenter the workforce with dignity, rebuild their lives, and become catalysts for peace.

It defies the long-standing narrative that a “checkered” past disqualifies individuals from meaningful, well-paying careers. Instead, CVI lifts up the power of redemption, recognizing that those who once contributed to harm are often best positioned to interrupt it.

In this work, the messenger becomes the message. Violence Interventionists re-engage with their communities not through cycles of conflict, but as messengers of peace, hope, and transformation. Their presence alone signals what is possible: growth, change, sustainability—and most critically—service to the very communities they once struggled within. CVI is more than a job; it’s a movement of redemption and purpose, proving that healing is possible, and that no one is beyond the reach of hope.

The cost of defunding hope

In April, President Trump rescinded $800 million of anti-violence grants including all those supported CVI work. For NCST this meant the loss of $3 million, some of which had already been spent, but now would not be reimbursed.

The results were severe. They have had to reduce the number of High Risk Interventionists from 16 down to 4. This has forced them to pull out from several parts of the city, where they had been active. It has also meant pulling back from in-school programs and community outreach.

While NCST still operates in the South Ward of Newark, it has had to stop operations in the West Ward, which is the location for a significant amount of violence.

This has undermined one of their most promising efforts which was a collaboration between their school based team at the OYN school in the West Ward that served a population of high needs teenagers at risk of involvement in violence and community based outreach and mediation efforts.

Under that effort, they were able to leverage relationships in the community to more effectively connect with students to help reduce conflict and mediate disputes.

Losing that city-wide focus also means fewer relationships to call upon across Wards. In one recent incident in the West Ward, people who had recently moved from the South Ward were involved in a dispute, the West Ward outreach team included someone with roots in the South Ward allowing the team to approach that group and initiate a mediation process that prevented further violence.

There is a growing body of evidence that community based anti-violence efforts can effectively reduce violence when it is properly funded and well operated. NCST is one of the longest existing and best run organizations in the country and has the evidence to back it up.

What you can do

Cuts to federal funding will substantially undermine their work and the work of dozens of other groups around the country.

We need Congress to step in and put this funding back in the budget. In the meantime, we need local state and philanthropic funders to do what they can to fill the gap. Losing progress in the effort to stop the violence is in no one’s interest.

Calling your elected representative in the U.S. House Of Representatives or U.S. Senate is the most effective way to influence policy. To find your representative and senator to voice your position, go to the House website and the Senate website.

Rey Chavis is executive director of Newark Community Street Team and a lifelong resident of Newark.

Alex S. Vitale is professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center and author of “The End of Policing.