The Rochester Peace Collective is a collaborative effort that guides investments from local funding organizations into innovative and proven programs that work to prevent violent crimes. The Peace Collective aligns closely with the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Recreation and Human Services, and the Rochester Public Library to advance violence prevention by collaborating with community-based organizations and agencies working in the fields of re-entry and violence prevention.
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 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.
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.
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.