NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

No Violence in the City possible

Jul 21, 2004

Streetworkers carry message of peace to neighborhoods

Wednesday, July 21, 2004
BY AMANDA MILKOVITS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- One of them says they travel the toughest streets in the city, armed only with their hearts and their faith in peaceful solutions.
The executive director of a year-old program that put streetworkers into neighborhoods says their success in counseling the city's youths can be seen in the falling crime rate.
"We're not creating angels," said Teny O. Gross, executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence. "But it's a process."
The eight trained streetworkers talk to the youths, who might listen to no one else. They reach out to those in trouble and persuade them to turn away from violence. They counsel, mediate feuds, and offer diversions from boredom in the streets -- such as education and job opportunities.
There are no statistics for when people decide to solve their problems without violence.
But there has been in a significant drop in shootings and killings this year and in the flood of calls from youths who seek the streetworkers' help.
"I think the streetworker program is remarkable. I think it's proven its worth as the most important group we work with on the streets day to day," said police Chief Dean M. Esserman. "They're trusted by all. They don't take sides or divulge confidences. And they bring credibility to peacemaking in the street."
The streetworkers are based in the South Side and the West End, and in the housing projects of Chad Brown, Manton, Lockwood and Hartford Avenue. They also frequent the schools and, after school, the community centers and Kennedy Plaza.
It's a full-time job, and the streetworkers are paid by the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence.
"They know the kids, and the kids tell them what issues are happening or might be happening," Gross said.
The program receives $300,000 to $400,000 in federal, state and local money. Last night, Mayor David N. Cicilline walked through neighborhoods with streetworker Ra Chun, 34.
He said he wanted to show his support for a program that is "saving lives." The budget for this fiscal year set aside $100,000 for the streetworker program; last year, the mayor obtained a $75,000 grant from Dexter Donation, a charitable trust formed to help poor people.
"We're very good at responding afterward [to violence]," Cicilline said before his walk. "But what's different about the streetworkers is they work with young people before they become involved in gangs and drugs."
The streetworkers, for the most part, come from the neighborhoods they serve.
"I love the community. I love the children. They are the future," says Chun, an ex-gang member who now counsels youths in his own West End neighborhood. "They don't know any better. They need someone to lift them up. . . . We can't give up on them."
And for a small group, the streetworkers manage to be everywhere there's trouble -- or about to be trouble.
"We're out there on the street -- no gun or badge," Chun said. "We're out there with our hearts, we're out there with love."
They're crime-fighters, in a sense, although they are independent from the Police Department.
"They are not part of the Police Department. They don't work for us and they're not informants," Esserman said. "We collaborate in trying to head off conflicts before they occur, and to listen and bring solutions."
When three people were hurt in a gang-related drive-by shooting on Hathaway Street on Saturday, the streetworkers were there. The shooting had apparently been sparked by a fight the night before. The streetworkers talked with both sides, gently, urging them to stop the violence.
Chun speaks from his experience growing up in the West End.
"Don't take this negative into your own hands," Chun said he tells the teenagers. "Don't waste your time. Don't go to prison for all this mess."
He reflects on the work he and the other streetworkers are doing.
"You cannot save the whole world," Chun said. "But you can save who needs to be saved, and the community, and their loved ones."