BALTIMORE, MD (March 17, 2016)– Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, and executive director of Catholic Charities, Bill McCarthy today joined with members of the community to mark the official opening of the newest Safe Streets Baltimore location that is bringing the program credited with reducing gun violence to the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. The new site is Baltimore City’s fifth Safe Streets location, joining site in the Cherry Hill, Mondawmin, Park Heights, and McElderry Park neighborhoods.

“We know that violence spreads like an infection, but just like infectious diseases, it can be prevented. In neighborhoods across our city, we have seen how Safe Streets is a critical component in stopping this contagion,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen. “We are thrilled to expand this evidence-based initiative to Sandtown-Winchester to help further reduce homicides, decrease gun violence, and save lives.”

Safe Streets Baltimore was launched by the Baltimore City Health Department in 2007 as a replication of the national Cure Violence program. This public health initiative employs and trains outreach professionals to de-escalate and mediate disputes that might otherwise result in acts of violence.

Safe Streets maintains that violence is a learned behavior that can be prevented using disease control methods. This intervention targets at risk youth, aged 14 to 25, through regular individual interactions, conflict mediation, media campaigns and community mobilization.

The program aims to prevent violence through a three-prong approach:

• Identification and detection;
• Interruption, intervention, and risk reduction; and
• Changing behavior and norms

Safe Streets Baltimore employs an evidence-based public health approach to violence prevention and interruption by using data points to identify individuals at the highest risk for being either a victim or perpetrator of violence. The program works to mediate disputes and change the perception that violence is a normal or expected result of conflict, by focusing on executing alternative means of conflict resolution.

The program has realized significant success across Baltimore City, with two sites having at least one twelve month period with no homicides. In 2014, Safe Streets workers had 15,000 client interactions and mediated 880 conflicts. More than 80 percent of those interactions were deemed to be “likely” or “very likely” to result in gun violence. 

“Changing our city’s culture of violence requires a community-wide approach and we have seen how Safe Streets is a valuable part of these efforts, said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “We look forward to seeing this program expand to West Baltimore where it will utilize credible messengers and interrupt violence at its source.”

The new location is operated by Catholic Charities will be staffed by six employees: a program site director, a violence prevention coordinator and four outreach workers/violence interrupters and is based in the former convent building of St. Peter Claver Church on N. Fremont Ave.

The new site is funded with support from the Abell Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the National Association of County and City Health Officials, (NACCHO), and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“We are grateful to Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Health Commissioner Wen for partnering with Catholic Charities to launch Safe Streets Baltimore in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood,” said Bill McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore. “We are excited to work with our government and community partners to create a safer and healthier Baltimore with greater opportunities for all residents.”

For more information on the Safe Streets program, please visit http://health.baltimorecity.gov/safestreets.

For more information about Catholic Charities of Baltimore please visit www.catholiccharities-md.org.