Intervention

Page Contents: Caught in the CrossfireViolence Interruption  | PathwaysNational Network

 

The threat of violence on the streets of Oakland is ongoing and ever-shifting. Our intervention programs work directly with young people caught up in the cycle of violence. We step into the tensest situations to discourage retaliation, defuse hostilities, and provide victims pathways to a safer, healthier life.

Caught in the Crossfire

The time directly after violence erupts in a community is vital for determining what happens next. Through Caught in the Crossfire (CiC), a Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program, Youth ALIVE! staff  meet victims of violence at their hospital bedsides to

  • convince them, their friends. and their family not to retaliate; and
  • offer ongoing personal support focused on safety, healing, and growth.

CiC is staffed by Intervention Specialists (IS), credible messengers of change recruited from the community they serve. IS address both the urgent need for violence intervention and the ongoing service needs of survivors as they work to get back to life and confront the sometimes debilitating effects of their trauma.

“I want to be the person now that I needed back then—someone who could have helped me.” CiC Intervention Specialist Gericka Frison said.

In 2022, CiC served 171 clients; an additional 284 received short-term crisis intervention. More than 95% of clients were not reinjured. More than half received assistance obtaining Victims of Crime compensation, 72 received help with an education plan, more than a third received help with employment, and almost 20% received housing assistance.

Interested in starting your own hospital intervention program? Check out our Hospital Intervention Guide.

CiC was born out of a need and a vision. In the early 1990s, Sherman Spears found himself wounded and angry in a hospital bed in Oakland, reeling from the news that he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His loved ones offered him the only solace they knew: retaliation. Instead of returning to the violent life of the streets, Sherman invented Caught in the Crossfire, the first Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program. Caught in the Crossfire continues to be replicated across the nation.

 

Violence Interruption

Getting to the root of a problem can interrupt violence before it escalates or spreads. Youth ALIVE!’s Violence Interrupters take to Oakland’s streets at any time, to engage people preparing to defend or retaliate against a perceived enemy. Violence Interrupters defuse tensions to prevent more or future violence.  In 2022 they conducted 219 mediations and resolved 164 conflicts without further violence.

YA! Interrupters are from Bay Area communities. Some have worked in street outreach for years or are formerly-incarcerated Oaklanders; they understand the nuances of community conflicts, the barriers faced and the great promise of young people in Oakland’s most impacted neighborhoods. They are mentors, problem solvers and life savers.

“Sometimes community healing means breaking the cycle of violence before things erupt,” said Nina Carter, Senior Violence Interrupter.

Quantifyingthe violence that hasn’t happened in Oakland as a result of Violence Interrupters is near impossible, in addition to mediations the Interrupters completed 157 safety assessments at hospital bedsides and relocated 36 families to safety. If you need mediation in your neighborhood, contact Glen Upshaw, Violence Interrupter Team Manager.

Pathways

The Pathways  program provides youth with positive adult attention and support in creating a life map to safety, academic success and permanent freedom from the justice system. Established to help youth at risk for exposure to violence, on probation, or emerging from incarceration, Pathways staff are recruited from the community and share similar experiences to the youth we serve. The staff, called Intervention Specialists (IS), are mentors and trained life coaches as well as case managers who intervene in young lives to provide positive influence and practical help.

The YA! model involves intensive relationship building with a focus on regular, frequent, consistent contact. We meet the youth where they are — physically, mentally, and emotionally. In 2022, Pathways mentored 56 youth, 35 who enrolled in school and 13 who re-enrolled. The program also supported 18 youth in obtaining employment. In 2023 we introduce a school-based Pathways IS at Castlemont and Rudsdale High Schools. “It is crazy because the name ‘pathways’ resonates with me because I look at it as I try to present other pathways to the youth,” Glen Upshaw, Jr, Pathways Intervention Specialist, said. “ I want to show them there are other ways to do things.”

The HAVI

The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention

In response to many requests from hospitals and agencies throughout the country interested in replicating our Caught in the Crossfire hospital-based intervention model, Youth ALIVE! helped establish the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (NNHVIP), now known as the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, the HAVI,  in 2009, which has grown to include dozens of member programs from across the US, UK, Latin America and Canada. The NNHVIP brings together the best and most exciting programs to share knowledge, develop best practices, collaborate on research, affect policy change, an annual conference, and more. Read more about The HAVI.