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In 2009 the New York State Senate announced a new initiative, Operation SNUG, “which creates a cooperative program between anti-violence community groups and local law enforcement to inhibit the proliferation of gangs and illegal guns.” This new initiative will be based upon a program that originated in Chicago know as Ceasefire Chicago. This program model provides outreach, prevention and intervention services to direct young people who live within known hotspots for gang like violence away from illegal guns, gang participation and activity and street level violence – especially gun related violence.
This program has five core components:
· Community Mobilization
· Youth Outreach
· Public Education
· Faith Based Leader Participation
· Law Enforcement Participation
This program in Syracuse is being administered by New Justice Conflict Resolution Services, Inc. New Justice will be fielding a street outreach team of individuals known as “credible messengers” and “violence interrupters”. These individuals are community residents who can directly work with youth from the street culture to mediate conflicts before they escalate into more aggressive levels of violence.
This team will provide public outreach activity and responses to critical incidents of violence specifically between 2 pm and 10 pm, seven days a week.
This project represents a community based collaboration involving several grassroots organizations: Concerned Citizens Action Program and the Faith Hope Community Center will provide “Reach out” services to assist with bringing people to the mediation table as well as direct clients to educational and employment preparation opportunities. The Mothers Against Gun Violence will provide Trauma Response Support to families caught up in critical incidents of violence (in cooperation with the University Hospital Emergency Department), as well as conducting community mobilization and public education efforts and activities around critical community issues. The Syracuse Police Department and the Onondaga County Probation Department will provide information as to known trouble areas and situations where mediation is required.
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