Investing in Gang Intervention to Reimagine Public Health & Safety
Ever Linares is the Co-Founder and Program Director of Resilient, a violence prevention agency in Los Angeles.
For nearly 20 years, Ever Linares has witnessed the ability of gang intervention services to not only transform the lives of former gang members, but also transform public safety. “We engage active gang members and put them on a different path. We change their lives from going to a negative to a positive,” states Linares.
As Co-Founder of Resilient, Mr. Linares works to deescalate neighborhood feuds, which can fuel violence and cause decades-long tensions between communities By acting as a credible community messenger, Mr. Linares can create peace between community members in ways law enforcement is unable. These gang intervention efforts have contributed to Los Angeles maintaining less than 300 homicides each year over the past decade.[1]
Mr. Linares also provides incident response services to prevent retaliatory violence after a shooting or homicide occurs. “When a violent act does happen, we provide incident response, mediation, and rumor control. If we can keep the suspected perpetrator or victim’s family talking, then we can keep them from shooting,” describe Linares. An evaluation found that incident response services resulted in 43% fewer retaliations, and the prevention of 185 violent gang crimes throughout Los Angeles in 2014-15.[2]
Since the onset of the COVID-19, Mr. Linares has pivoted from not only acting a violence interrupter, to now also serving as virus interrupter to combat the disproportionate spread of coronavirus in South Los Angeles. Classified as an essential agency, Resilient is now providing PPE and masks to underserved community members, food and meal distributions, as well as public health education to residents.
While addressing these two public health crises, gun violence and COVID-19, Mr. Linares’ work remains woefully underfunded. Since 2008, intervention workers contracted by the City of Los Angeles have not received significant pay raises. “Funding is scarce and limited, everyone is fighting over the same crumbs when the need is so great,” describes Linares.
Increased public and philanthropic investment is needed to expand the capacity and increase the number of gang intervention and outreach workers who create peace on streets and support communities of color during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional funding is urgently needed to support violence prevention agencies as they support the basic needs of families of color who are disproportionately impacted by violence, as well as the economic devastation caused by COVID-19. Gang intervention services will prove crucial in maintaining peace as more residents turn to the street economy to supplement their incomes lost through the pandemic.
[1] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-31/crime-in-los-angeles-drops-2019-police-community-partnerships-and-gang-intervention