In the roughly 90 minutes it takes to travel along Interstate 10 from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, a lot can happen for those of us working in community-based public safety.
Our conversations can move quickly from what’s working to keep neighborhoods safe to what needs to happen to keep our programs funded. In our combined 20+ years of leading this work, we learned sustained investment in community violence intervention (CVI) saves lives across Louisiana while half-measures cost us all dearly.
In New Orleans, the results of consistent investment are hard to argue with. The city ended last year with its lowest murder count in more than 50 years — a decline that outpaced the national trend. That reduction followed Ubuntu Village NOLA Peace Ambassadors’ work of going block-by-block through neighborhoods, asking residents directly what they needed, and building programs around their answers.
Using a community safety ecosystem approach, Ubuntu worked with the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and University Medical Center’s Trauma Recovery Center and Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program to defuse and de-escalate tensions before shootings occur and to connect residents to resources to address root causes of violence.
The reduction in violence required real investment in CVI. In New Orleans, the mayor and city council allocated funding that allowed the Peace Ambassadors program to double in size, both in staffing and target areas. Partnerships with the Big Easy Budget Coalition, Vera Institute of Justice, and Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute have also added evaluation and advocacy support, encouraging the city to invest in what’s actually working.
However, Baton Rouge offers an example of missed opportunities that often create schisms instead of safety. Although the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council made an initial commitment of $1.2 million toward community violence intervention, city investment alone is not enough to meet the need.
When the Baton Rouge Community Street Team experienced shifting administrative priorities and budget cuts, the organization was forced to stretch already limited resources and make what felt like impossible trade-offs to do as much good as possible with little to no funding.
The contrast between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is not unique to these two communities, but it illuminates what we know to be true: when community violence intervention work receives consistent funding and time to mature, the outcomes speak for themselves. And when the funding disappears or never fully materializes, the losses stack up in ways measured in names, not just numbers.
By examining two organizations doing similar work under very different financial circumstances, we can isolate one of the variables that matters most — funding.
Neither of us is asking elected officials, policymakers, or law enforcement to take our word for it. We are simply asking people to look at what happened in New Orleans when the investment was supported and sustained, and to imagine what is possible everywhere else in Louisiana.
Community violence intervention is not a quick fix, and it was never meant to be. It is relationship-building, block-by-block, funded and trusted long enough to work. Louisiana has already proven this model can bring a city’s homicide rate to historic lows. The next step is deciding whether we are willing to fund that success consistently everywhere it is needed.
We have done the work in two cities long enough to know what it produces when it is trusted and resourced. Now is the time for communities across the state to decide whether it is worth doing everywhere.
Danny Allen is the program director of NOLA Peach Ambassadors in New Orleans. Sateria Tate-Alexander is the founder of AGILE Planning Solutions and director of the Baton Rouge Community Street Team.
