The investments of the Peace Collective will support trauma-informed, social-emotional health programming, as well as prioritizing re-entry services, job training and preparation, meditation and conflict resolution, youth development and mental health support, the arts, and other approaches.
The City has committed $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to advance these efforts.
On December 1, 2022, Mayor Malik D. Evans announced that the City's selection of 19 human-service organizations to serve as charter members of the Rochester Peace Collective to bring a coordinated approach to community-based anti-violence programming.
“The Rochester Peace Collective will focus the energy and experience of our community’s most determined anti-violence advocates to deliver lasting peace to our city,” said Mayor Evans. “We know the true prescription for long-term change in our community must come up from the community itself, not down from City Hall. The Rochester Peace Collective will help us find that prescription and bring violence under control for today and future generations.”
The Rochester Peace Collective directs $5 million from the
City’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation to support anti-violence programs
within existing community organizations, and is encouraging additional support
from philanthropic organizations. It will also create a central clearinghouse
within the Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention to establish a reporting
mechanism for metrics of success and share information among the groups to help
them learn from each other.
Charter Members
The proposed 20 charter members of the Peace Collective and their programs are:
Action for a Better Community: Employ the
evidence-based service and counseling models Cure Violence and Restorative
Justice Circle to help individuals with histories of incarceration, gang
activity, and reentry develop life skills that promote non-violence.
Agape Haven of Abundance Community Outreach
Center: Provide youth whose home life is not conducive to healthy
development with out-of-school safe places and enrichment programs on such
topics as hunger relief, youth empowerment, community corrections and health
education.
Area U: Employ a Multi-Tiered Systems of
Support intervention and prevention framework to provide “whole-person” support
services to help at-risk youth develop such skills as responsibility and empathy.
Baden Street Settlement/Metro Council for
Teen Potential: Employ holistic strategies to help children overcome
traumatic and adverse childhood experiences to gain a positive and confident
outlook for their futures.
Cameron Community Ministries: Provide
youth with a safe and supportive environment with emergency services and
programs for academic enrichment and social, emotional and cognitive health.
Center for Dispute Settlement/Untrapped
Ministries: Offer young adults a 16-week workforce development and
violence-prevention program that features community service and certified
training on skills including mental health first aid, peer mediation and
conflict resolution.
The Center for Youth: Provide youth
development, skill attainment, legal alternatives for first-time offenders;
anti-violence and anti-substance abuse assistance; workforce development; and
social-emotional supports to provide restorative and trauma-informed
interventions in response to school suspensions.
Community Resource Collaborative: Provide
high-risk, predominantly re-entry youth and young adults with social-emotional
support for personal development and job readiness and retention.
Conflict Management Solutions: Provide
post-incarcerated individuals with the Change, Choices and You program offering
social-emotional, trauma-informed counseling.
The Fatherhood Connection: Provide the
eight-week Men and Boys to Men program to help fathers in underserved, Black
and brown neighborhoods become confident and competent leaders in their community
and better understand their roles and responsibilities to reduce violence for
best interest of their children.
First Genesis Baptist Church: Provide
teen and young adult men the Black Men Empowerment Series, featuring mentoring
and decision-making workshops on setting career and education goals.
Hope Initiatives: Pre-release and
post-release job-training and affordable housing support for individuals
leaving incarceration.
In Control Program of Planned Parenthood of Central and Western NY: Help youth of color overcome systemic racism and neighborhood disinvestment through positive-behavior and employment-skill development programs focused on topics including leadership, culinary arts and digital media production.
Judicial Process Commission: Provide
legal assistance and trauma-informed support services to help formerly
incarcerated women and women affected by the criminal justice system overcome
barriers to employment, find stable housing and seek reunification with their
children and loved ones.
Line ‘em Up Barbering: Provide teens and
young adults a six-week program job training and life-skill development to
pursue careers in barbering.
Rise Up Rochester/Community Care Services
Inc. (CCSI): Support crime victims and their families with services
including housing, mediation/conflict resolution, youth development and mental
health care.
ROC the Peace/CCSI: Help those who lost a
child, another family member or close friend to violence find healing and
closure by bringing them together with those coping with similar losses to
effectively function within an unexpected and unwelcome new reality.
Sownd House: Provide a youth music and
arts program to offer a hands-on approach to quality music production and
distribution coupled with the creative expression of non-violent emotions in
musical compositions.
Villa of Hope: Support the expansion of
the Juvenile Reporting Center after-school program that provides at-risk youth
social, recreational and learning activities to prevent their involvement in
violent and other anti-social behaviors.
Youth Making Changes: Provide support
services for young adults emerging from foster care.