8.22.21

Ep. 135: How to Cure Violence – Rebuilding Trust & Safety In Our Communities

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Consumers' podcast graphic with title "How to Cure Violence - Rebuilding Trust & Safety in Our Communities" with a picture of Gregg Hampshire with Urban League of West Michigan.

 

In this week’s edition of Money, I’m Home, Lynne is joined by Gregg Hampshire to discuss Cure Violence, an innovative new program dedicated to solving the violence epidemic with the Grand Rapids Urban League.

 

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0:00:06.8 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home! Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. We love to bring you community stories that help you really figure out what you’d like to do, maybe in the community to volunteer. And I’ll tell you what, Gregg Hampshire is with us today. He’s the Director of Center Health, Wellness and Youth for the Urban League of West Michigan. And Gregg, I’ve been involved with the Urban League for so many years. It is such an exciting time. Tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into a new program that’s going to be starting, that’s very exciting.

0:00:40.0 Gregg Hampshire (GH): First of all Lynne, thank you so much for having me on the show. I’m fairly new to the Urban League. I’ve been with the organization for just over a year now. I have over 10 years worth of experience though, in non-profit leadership with a background with working with runaway and homeless youth, as well as providing education programming, specifically in financial literacy and entrepreneurship or K-12 students.

0:01:05.0 LJJ: Tell us, how did you get into the service work that you’re in, Gregg. There must be a passion involved as well.

0:01:12.4 GH: Yeah, I’m a Grand Rapidian myself. I grew up in the West Grand neighborhood. I’m a Grand Rapids Public School graduate. I feel like I’ve been so lucky. There’s been such a great support system through my life as a low socio-economic student, that I’m passionate about giving back and passionate about education. One of the things that significantly impacted me was having adult mentors that could steer me in directions when I would have otherwise been a bit more wayward.

0:01:45.3 LJJ: Tell me about when you started with the Urban League. It’s a point in time where there’s just such… You’re looking at COVID and you’re looking at things that are happening in the city that is causing stress amongst many, many individuals, and you all of a sudden hop into a new role.

0:02:05.8 GH: Yeah, it was quite an interesting transition, especially not only during COVID in the summer, but also in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. It was important to me to transition into a role that allowed me to focus on justice inequity. Fortunately, I’ve worked with the staff here at the Urban League in my past role providing speakers to local schools, so I knew the staff here very well. They just gave me the opportunity to meet Ms. Brenda Moore, our COO and interim president, and they gave me an opportunity that I’m very excited about, to significantly change lives here in Grand Rapids, but also hopefully shift some norms and make the city a better place to live.

0:02:57.1 LJJ: You know, here’s what is very… Just totally exciting to me, is a new program that’s coming into town, that’s in town, actually and the City of Grand Rapids has partnered with the Urban League for a program that’s called Cure Violence. And one of the things that I find the most eye-opening is the history of the Cure Violence program really started in Chicago, but it started with an individual who thinks of violence in a way that is, I think, mind-blowing and so spot-on and that… It’s like tuberculosis, it’s like a disease, and that you’ve got to stop it at its source. Tell us a little bit about this, Gregg, because I know that you’re going to be leading this charge through the Urban League, and the collaboration starts now.

0:03:47.3 GH: It’s an evidence-based program out of Chicago, as you said. What makes it so impactful is this public health approach where we detect and interrupt conflicts with the help of violence interrupters and outreach workers. We identify and treat those that are the highest risk of transmission and infection, and then work on changing norms to prevent further infections and contagion.

0:04:10.5 LJJ: When you look at COVID, Gregg, do you think that all of everything that has happened in the last year and a half, nearly two years, that has happened, has been such an eye-opening experience for me, just to say, “Okay, wait. We know there’s stress.” Everyone has stress in their lives, but when all of a sudden you come home, the fact that the social areas that were so strong, the youth centers, places where people would be able to gather and have frank conversations, all of a sudden shut down. You’ve got schools shut down. I read an article over the weekend about a mom and she literally had moved her family to what she considered a safer location in Philadelphia, and she said the hardest thing was her son went to the mall because there was nothing else to do. There wasn’t school going on, there was this cycle that started to happen and he became a victim of violence. Have you found that, obviously, our numbers in the West Michigan area, across the State of Michigan, have grown since COVID, since the first of the year. Scary stuff.

0:05:21.1 GH: Yeah, the structure that was in place through youth centers, schools, opportunities to use this energy in a positive way, those being unavailable, we believe that’s part of the reason for the significant uptake in violence in the City of Grand Rapids. Young people need structure, they need to know that there’s opportunity for them and hopelessness can be at an all-time high when you are faced with a scary contagion, and the support system that would normally help you feel safe, is unavailable to you. We’re hoping that as we introduce this program, and even in the wake of COVID-19 and a possible resurgence with the Delta variant, that we’ll be able to still provide some structure while understanding the severity and seriousness of the pandemic possibly continuing this fall.

0:06:19.5 LJJ: So, Gregg, tell me about the partnership, because it’s a collaboration that starts at the city level, and Urban League was granted the overseer of the program. How many organizations though are you going to be helping collaborate to work on this, and how does the city get involved? Tell us about the police department and the social component of getting into the neighborhoods where you need to be.

0:06:44.7 GH: There’s no set number of organizations that we partner. We’re looking to partner with health departments. The city is providing the oversight of how we run the program, we’re working very close with Brandon Davis, who is the director of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. We’re also hoping to work with community partners that could provide resources for the individuals that will go through our Cure Violence program and our greater program. We call them client guests here at the Urban League. And one of the unique findings with the Cure Violence program is that participants in communities where Cure Violence has been in place find greater trust in the community policing. Ideally our GRPD would help a program like Cure Violence, they would trust in our implementing of the program. And that when they’re present in the community it’s for emergencies, while violence interrupters and outreach workers can handle situations before they become volatile and would lower the likelihood of bigger engagement.

0:07:55.3 GH: We’re working with GRPD to identify hotspots in the area so that we can focus on finding these interrupters and outreach workers that actually live in the communities that these high incidences of violence are happening. And that’s really what’s most important about the Cure Violence program, is that the individuals that are hired by the Urban League as a part of this program live in these areas. They are credible and they’re suitable, and they are people that already are recognized in these areas. They’re people that… Individuals that are, at the highest rate of infection that I mentioned earlier, would trust and have conversations with before they just determine to possibly retaliate.

0:08:46.8 LJJ: I love the fact that our police chief has stated that the Urban League, the objective truly is to focus this Cure Violence into the strategic plan. Spectrum Health is a really big supporter and partner already, so it’s really a community outreach that is very intentional. It’s a program that works, that has worked at across cities and is needed now more than ever. Tell me how you are looking at it in a big picture view with this community, it’s got to be so exciting for you, Gregg, with the background that you have and what your passion is.

0:09:22.9 GH: Yeah, I’m very excited about the Cure Violence program being brought to Grand Rapids. How I see it is it’s a great way to rebuild trust in our communities and really creating more of a sense of safety. I think it’s one thing to feel safe with law enforcement at the ready, and there’s another thing to feel safe in your community, because you know your community, and when I see the Cure Violence program, I see it as us employing individuals in these areas that might not have otherwise had the opportunity to work in a non-profit and make an excellent livable wage and give back to their community. Also, I hope to see that with the success of this program that hopefully there can be expansion. Here at the Urban League we’re right in one of the hotspots here at Franklin and Eastern, and so we’re going to be investing a lot of resources just on our corner here to significantly impact the third ward. And we’re really excited for the opportunity because we’ve been doing this work for almost 80 years in this area, whether it be our sons programming, our housing programming or our employment programming.

0:10:32.3 LJJ: Gregg, tell us how can people get involved if they hear that, oh, this has been a really strong rebuilding other cities around the country, actually around the world this really a fascinating read. Tell me, how can people get involved? And can they if they’re interested? How are you finding your volunteers and those who are actually going into the communities?

0:10:55.0 GH: Well, we have a lot of fantastic community partners, so there’s a lot of investment with the staff currently with those partners, but individuals and organizations that are looking to be involved in this radical new approach to violence interruption, they can either call us at our main line, which is 616-245-2207 or they can visit our website, which is GRUrbanLeague.org or they can email us at [email protected]. There’s a lot of opportunities to help mentor young people, give rides to individuals that might need a ride to an interview. They could also help us with our workshops, we’re always finding new ways to get volunteers engaged to help change the lives of the people that come through our door.

0:11:52.1 LJJ: Well Gregg, thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. It’s such a great adventure for all of us, especially our community, but especially those who need it the most, so thank you so much for your time.

0:12:03.1 GH: Thank you Lynne, we are really excited that you gave us the opportunity to talk more about this program and the good work that we’re doing here at the Urban League.

0:12:09.3 LJJ: Okay. Thank you so much, Gregg, if any of you have any topics you’d like to share with us, please send them our way. I’d like to give a big shout out to Jake Esselink, our producer. Thank you very much, Jake. Okay, everyone, have a great week. Money, I’m Home! With Consumers Credit Union.

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