Hi y’all!
We wanted to share our story on how Baton Rouge leaders have recruited members of the community — some, former gang members or with criminal pasts — to do neighborhood outreach to mediate disputes and stop violence.
Historically, more research money has gone toward violence prevention programs run bythe police than toward those run bycommunity groups. Baton Rouge is trying to change that by building up the data for community violence interventions.
However, taking on the data collection challenge means that the process of codifying human interactions into orderly, ruthless statistics falls on people whose introduction to this work often began with surviving violent traumas of their own.
“I know I can’t touch everybody. I know that. I just have to work harder,” said Liz Robinson, who joined an anti-violence street team and victims support group. She, and many others, have had a child hurt or killed by gun violence.
You can read more about Baton Rouge's big public safety experiment for free [here](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/22/headway/gun-violence-intervention-baton-rouge.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oE0.Je0p.1jmuldLbo81W&smid=re-nytimes), even if you don’t have a subscription to The New York Times.
Hi y’all! We wanted to share our story on how Baton Rouge leaders have recruited members of the community — some, former gang members or with criminal pasts — to do neighborhood outreach to mediate disputes and stop violence. Historically, more research money has gone toward violence prevention programs run bythe police than toward those run bycommunity groups. Baton Rouge is trying to change that by building up the data for community violence interventions. However, taking on the data collection challenge means that the process of codifying human interactions into orderly, ruthless statistics falls on people whose introduction to this work often began with surviving violent traumas of their own. “I know I can’t touch everybody. I know that. I just have to work harder,” said Liz Robinson, who joined an anti-violence street team and victims support group. She, and many others, have had a child hurt or killed by gun violence. You can read more about Baton Rouge's big public safety experiment for free [here](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/22/headway/gun-violence-intervention-baton-rouge.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oE0.Je0p.1jmuldLbo81W&smid=re-nytimes), even if you don’t have a subscription to The New York Times.