A Violence Prevention Recommendations Report from the Community Safety Department

February 5th, 2026

Introduction: This report begins with an overview, followed by a review of relevant models, local context, and data, program outcomes, and concludes with recommendations. CSD funded four programs (My Brother's Keeper, Inner City Weightlifting, Cambridge HEART, and Transition House) with $150k each to support their violence prevention efforts in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Based on community conversations, program evaluation data reported by the organizations that received funding, and best practices from the field of violence prevention, we recommend: 1) CSD continues to work with community-based organizations, coordinating efforts, checking for redundancy, and identifying opportunities to improve collaboration.

This focus is on reducing violence through case management programming that emphasizes career development, physical and emotional wellness, college success, and wrap-around support for members of the community before and after traumatic events. 2) CSD hires an FTE on par with an Assistant Director or Senior Manager who is both administrative/clinical to coordinate the violence prevention ecosystem, implement a new Request For Proposal (RFP) process, and evaluate its effectiveness over the next 18 to 36 months.

3) CSD develops, implements, and evaluates the impact of an internal violence prevention program informed by the next 18 to 36 months of case management data, using a harm- reduction framework and drawing on the field's best practices. The new position will be responsible for collaborating with CSD responders, clinicians, and trusted community members. CSD plans to evaluate the correlation between violence prevention programming and the number of gun-related incidents over the next 5 years.

Background: In 2024, The Economist and other national media outlets recognized the City of Boston as the “Safest big city in America.” According to the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, Boston reported the lowest number of homicides (24) in 2024, down from 37 in 2023, since data collection started in 1957.

In exploring how other cities are addressing similar challenges, CSD worked closely with Issac Yablo, Director of the Office of Violence Prevention and Senior Advisor for Community Safety to Mayor Wu, and his team to better understand Boston’s methodology, processes, and successes in this space. 2 2 Boston’s Community Safety Team focuses its long-term violence prevention efforts in four key areas: Prevention, Intervention, Recovery, and Reinvestment. In Cambridge, the

Pathways to Success Report (Belletti, Clark, and Green, 2023) recommended violence-

prevention efforts focused on reducing gun violence. They also recommended increasing violence-prevention programming in education, literacy, postsecondary success, and mentoring. Their recommendations went so far as to imagine a “Department of Postsecondary Success” and a “Mentor and Support Division” within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The City of Cambridge’s violence prevention efforts prior to FY’25 were robust. In early discussions with key stakeholders, the community’s needs were explored and assessed. Representatives from the city, the schools, and the police estimated that there are around a dozen known individuals perpetrating gun violence.

City leadership also highlighted three key assumptions about violence prevention, specifically gun-related incidents: First, there was a fundamental belief at the start of this project that success in reducing violence was possible, due to the manageable number of at-risk individuals in Cambridge. Cambridge Police data between 2020 and 2024 shows an average of 11.2 shootings per year (CPD, 2025). Second, we must adapt our vision of how the modern violence-prevention ecosystem is evolving.

This includes accounting for the impact of social media, regional dynamics, and mental health on violence prevention programming. This will require greater flexibility and vigilance in data collection to ensure participant privacy concerns remain at the forefront. As Yablo explained, when it comes to data collection, “We do not track kids, we prioritize them.” Third, violence prevention programming is not reaching the most at-risk individuals in Cambridge.

According to recent Police Executive Research Firm (PERF) findings, “about 5% of the highest risk youth do not appear to be engaged by any program.” Past city-led violence prevention efforts have included street teams, but without consistent funding and reliable data collection, it is difficult to prove their effectiveness, and the consensus remains mixed (Pro Publica, 2023). Findings:

National Violence Prevention Models

The Albuquerque Community Safety (ASC) Department, currently funded at close to 20 million dollars annually and with a staff of close to 150, deploys specialized teams to meet specific needs within its population. There is a close relationship between the Albuquerque Police Department and Community Safety, wherein the former can refer at-risk individuals and schedule focused deterrence with credible messengers.

There are Behavioral Health Responders (crisis intervention), Community Responders (lower-level wellness checks), Street Outreach Responders (unhoused encampments), and Mobile Crisis Team (co-response with police). Additionally, ACS leverages a Violence Intervention Program (VIP) Division, five trauma- informed offerings that address violence, addiction, and recovery through peer-led support and education.

The Community-Oriented Response & Assistance (CORA) program supports victims of trauma, the Opioid Education & Prevention (OEP) program offers recovery support, and 3 3 the Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) and the School-Based Violence Intervention Program (SBVIP) teams work to meet individuals where they are. Lastly, the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) engages those at the highest risk of gun violence through credible messengers and case management.

In a ride-along with the CORA team and VIP peer support, we traveled to the home of an adolescent boy, who spent 2 weeks in juvenile detention after threatening his family with a knife. Before his arrest, he had already suffered the physical and emotional trauma of losing his leg to a lawnmower accident. Additionally, he lost his 5-year-old sister to a drive-by shooting. The parents left the country, and the individual was left to live with de facto grandparents.

The CORA team was able to establish a relationship with the grandparents, who only spoke Spanish, providing them with emotional support for the shooting, education around the boy's medication and Multisystemic Therapy (MST), and coaching around “system navigation.”