City officials tout success of Mayor Scott's Group Violence Reduction Strategy

BALTIMORE — City officials said Wednesday that Mayor Scott's Group Violence Reduction Strategy will remain essential in rehabilitating individuals and reducing violent crime. 

The Mayor launched the initiative in January 2022, but announced it's expansion in early December 2022.  Partnering with Youth Advocate Programs Inc. (YAP), and Roca, the initiative's purpose is to reduce violent crime by offering services and mentorship to at risk individuals.     

"Our Group Violence Reduction Strategy relies on a balance of positive and punitive consequences to ensure individuals most at-risk of being involved in gun violence – either as a perpetrator or victim – are able to step away from the life or face swift, certain, and legitimate accountability," said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson.  

Jackson said the GVRS has made a major impact in West, and Southwest Baltimore, with a 45.2% and a 15.8% drop in aggregate homicides and non-fatal shootings, respectively across the two districts.

The services that GVRS provides through its partners include housing assistance, emergency relocation, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, following the philosophy that people will make an effort to improve their lives when given the opportunity. 

"We're able to touch people's lives personally. We're able to go out we're putting feet to our words, and we're going out, and we're touching folks, "Dr. LaVern Murray from the Doxa Ministries Church Without Walls said touting the program.  "Destruction leads to a path of death and destruction. So we are out there changing that perspective."