‘Operation Respond’ brings services to communities

Darcy Costello, Tribune News Service

A voice called out to a man meandering past a line of rowhouses in Baltimore’s McElderry Park neighbourhood: “Let us holler at you!” When he reached the group gathered on the sidewalk, its members made their pitch. They could help connect him with services or with his resume and getting a job — whatever he needed most to get on his feet. The man nodded, then said when the “time is right,” he would come to visit. As the group moved on, he called out, “Proud of y’all!” That November afternoon, the crisis management intervention team called Operation Respond canvassed the East Baltimore neighbourhood’s streets, dispatched to reach residents with a large, customised RV. The team — case managers, resource navigators and others — chatted, educated and encouraged the people they encountered, distributing flyers as they went.

The team’s purpose, the leaflets proclaimed, was to “holistically respond to and serve” families at highest risk of community violence, who “wish to heal unresolved trauma, and change the trajectory of their lives.” Along the way, the team was joined by two participants, part of the 21 people already being served by the programme since its launch in recent months. One, 26-year-old Joshua Guerrero, would go on to catch a ride to a driver’s permit test in the RV. He delivered good news to the team later: he’d passed.

The new programme, created by the Living Classrooms Foundation, brings crisis response and resources into two Baltimore neighbourhoods to help stabilise communities hard-hit by gun violence. When someone wants help, the team begins with a needs assessment and other evaluations, with the help of a licensed social worker, on the way toward crafting a strategic life plan complete with participants that sets 30-, 60- and 90-day goals. Typically, that process begins with securing documentation — birth certificate, driver’s license, etc. — then seeking employment.

Assistance also can include connecting participants with job training or providing healthy foods and needed items for children, such as diapers or wipes, according to Belinda Mazyck, a case manager. Or, it could look like brainstorming ways to reconnect with family members or strategies for mental health. She described, in one instance, helping a participant get a car towed to a shop and working together on a payment plan to fund the cost of the work.

It’s about meeting people’s needs, Mazyck explained, to have them “flourish and be the best version of themselves.” Dante Johnson, Living Classroom’s director of community safety initiatives, saw firsthand the need for the in-community wraparound services Operation Respond offers when he worked as the Belair-Edison Safe Streets site director, until his departure in early 2022.

In mediating conflicts, Safe Streets staff would look to direct residents to services, only to face hurdles, he said. This project is meant to complement that mediation work, not duplicate its efforts. Operation Respond will go beyond the immediate crisis point and work with individuals to get stabilised, Johnson said. “It’s like holding hands, right? People shun that a little bit — ‘You can’t hold a person’s hand all the time’ — but we’re committed to holding your hand,” Johnson said. “We want to walk you through the whole process, whatever the steps are to meet and achieve the goals that you set out to do.” If successful, supporters hope, that crisis response work could help curb violence and uplift neighborhoods. As Johnson put it: “Hurt people hurt people. … If we could help hurt people heal, that lessens the likelihood of them hurting someone else.”

The programme is largely federally funded, including with a nearly $2 million, three-year grant from the US. Department of Justice for community-based violence intervention programmes across the country. In that time, leaders hope to serve 150 people, ages 15 and older, in either McElderry Park or Belair-Edison — with the ultimate goal of reducing shootings in those parts of the city. Johnson said the programme will gauge its success by tracking metrics including the number of individuals served; the number of participants who receive services and a crisis management plan; the percentage of participants working toward a workforce industry credential; the percentage who obtain employment; and the percentage change in community-based violence incidents over those three years.

Part of what makes the concept unique is its mobile delivery. As Living Classroom’s managing director of workforce development, Cheryl Riviere, put it: “We’re meeting the community right where they are.” The Living Classrooms Foundation previously operated the Safe Streets sites in McElderry Park and Belair-Edison. Riviere said during that time, the team observed a lack of “supports” to help people with next steps. The team also did a survey of the community and found, in part, that 90% of respondents reported they’d be more likely to access resources if they were in their community.

“If I’m able to mediate a conflict and I stop that gun violence … there may be a likelihood that those people might engage in the activity again. But if I’m able to mediate the incident, and give somebody in real time a resource, or help, or another way out? That might lessen their risk,” Riviere said. “It’s really about giving people other options, where they feel comfortable, in their neighborhoods.” Its work fits into a larger “ecosystem” of community violence intervention efforts in Baltimore, as envisioned by Mayor Brandon Scott. Though not funded from city coffers, Operation Respond is a “partner” working in East Baltimore alongside Safe Streets, said Stefanie Mavronis, the interim director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

“When we talk about growing Baltimore violence prevention and intervention work to meet people at the highest risk of gun violence where they’re at, programs like Operation Respond are essential,” Mavronis said in a statement. One question on the Operation Respond contact form, which serves as a first step toward evaluating a potential participant, asks whether the individual or their family have been “impacted or traumatized from gun violence.” So far, 100% of survey respondents have answered yes, Johnson said — only highlighting the need for support in a city plagued by hundreds of homicides and nonfatal shootings each year. The second participant to catch up with the team that November afternoon was Kevin Brown, 23, who said he’d worked previously with Living Classrooms, taking advantage of other workforce development initiatives the foundation offers. One day recently, after Brown lost a job, he ran into Jamar Kennedy, a resource navigator with Operation Respond who goes by the nickname “Rock.” As Brown put it, Kennedy saw him “wandering around,” and asked whether he was supposed to be at work. Brown shared his work situation, and he was connected to Operation Respond.

Since working with them, Brown said, he’d created some goals to work toward. Already, the team helped him improve his resume — doing it “step by step,” he said — and was looking to schedule some driving hours for him, on the way toward securing his driver’s licence. Brown has a car sitting at a shop, he said, ready for that day.