The Center for Court Innovation (CCI) advocates criminal justice reforms designed to reduce crime and improve public trust in the justice system. It oversees a number of programs, including Save Our Streets (S.O.S.), an anti-gun violence program based on the Cure Violence Model of prevention.
S.O.S. Bed-Stuy (in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant) is an expansion site. The Bed-Stuy site is managed by the Crown Heights Mediation Center, a CCI project that operates another S.O.S. program in theCrown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Teams of outreach workers, violence interrupters, hospital responders, and their supervisors work in each community to reduce violence and to change public attitudes.
The staff members at S.O.S. programs are involved in their local communities and engaged in variety of activities, including confict mediations, public messaging campaigns, and community mobilization events. The program in Bed-Stuy also coordinates free screenings of the Cure Violence-based documentary, “The Interrrupters” as a way to spread awareness of their efforts.
The program’s hospital responder team responds to gun violence cases at Kings County Hospital. S.O.S. Bed-Stuy works closely with local organizations, neighborhood churches and pastors, civic leaders and businesses in addition to those participating directly in its programming. Through its work with these entities, the S.O.S. program provides mentorship and counseling, direct mediations of brewing conflicts, and helps to focus community protests against gun violence.
Program Particulars
| Host Organization: | Center for Court Innovation / Crown Heights Community Mediation Center |
| Program: | Save Our Streets (S.O.S) Bed-Stuy |
| Established: | 2014 |
| Contact: | jramos@sosbedstuy.org |
| Website: | crownheights.org/sos/bed-stuy/ |
| Implementation: | Full |
| Staff: | Supervisors (1); Outreach Workers (2); Violence Interrupters (2); Hospital Responders (1) |
| NYPD Precinct(s): | 36th |
| City Council Member District(s): | Robert Cornegy (36) |
| Adult residents living in poverty: | 25% |
| Residents 15-34 years of age: | 34% |
| NYCHA Communities: | Louis Armstrong I and Louis Armstrong II |
| Wrap-Around Service Partners: | Legal Aid Society, CUNY Arts Program, Harlem Mothers Save Program, CCI Brownsville, Crown Heights Mediation Center |