This month the University of Chicago Crime Lab released a policy brief that demonstrates that it is possible to create large and lasting reductions in gun violence and imprisonment among a population that has historically been hard to reach: youth who are increasingly disconnected from school.
Choose to Change (C2C) is a community violence intervention (CVI) program that aims to help young people in Chicago navigate a myriad of challenges, including high-stakes situations that could lead to violence. Nonprofits Brightpoint and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) oversee this community-based program with support from CPS.
Choose to Change focuses on youth who are beginning to disconnect from school and are at elevated risk of getting involved with crime and violence. Trained advocates support participating Chicago youth with a combination of behavioral science-informed programming, intensive mentorship, and individual and family support. The policy brief highlights that participation in such a comprehensive program can significantly reduce violent crime with sustained impact for years.
The policy brief details results from a large-scale randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of C2C on participants’ criminal justice involvement. The study shows that two years after the program, C2C reduces the likelihood that youth will be arrested for a violent crime by 39 percent. Results persist at least until 36 months after program participation, showing participants are 23 percent less likely to be arrested and 28 percent less likely to be arrested for a violent crime. The effects are largest for the most serious violent crimes, like aggravated assault and battery, suggesting the program helps youth avoid particularly high-stakes situations.
“These results indicate we have found a sustained way to interrupt the cycles of violence and trauma that our young people experience,” said Michael Shaver, President & CEO at Brightpoint. “This research shows that youth are making safer and healthier choices for themselves and are part of making their own communities safer and healthier while in C2C and for years after participating.”
These outcomes show that C2C successfully engages hard-to-reach youth at higher risk for justice system involvement. Youth who participated in C2C received an average of 176 hours of wraparound services and attended an average of nine cognitive behavioral intervention sessions over six months of programming. This suggests that C2C's intensive programming is effective at reaching, engaging, and serving youth with greater needs.
“The Crime Lab’s findings reinforce what we already know: C2C works,” said Gary Ivory, CEO at YAP. “The study provides evidence that blending cognitive behavioral therapy and intensive mentoring and individual and family support is an effective model for supporting young people and producing life-changing outcomes.”
C2C is part of a growing portfolio of encouraging results from studies of similar behavioral science-informed interventions, providing a proof point that CVI programs are effective strategies for reducing violence and improving public safety in communities across the country. Examples include Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM), the Rapid Employment and Development Initiative (READI), and a youth outreach forums program carried out for many years inside the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC).
Based on this encouraging evidence of the promise of CVI, the Crime Lab launched the CVI Leadership Academy, a five-month hands-on education program designed to deepen the leadership and management practices of senior CVI leaders so they can effectively manage community-based organizations and help scale effective CVI interventions. The second cohort of the academy graduated this September.
"Brightpoint and YAP are exemplars in the nonprofit sector for their commitment to generating the highest standard of evidence. With this research, they are supporting the entire field with data about how we can best help young people harmed by the twin challenges of gun violence and justice system involvement,” said Crime Lab and Education Lab Founding Executive Director Roseanna Ander. "This evidence adds to the mounting body of evidence that even well into adolescence and young adulthood, it is not too late to ensure young people avoid violence and justice system involvement. But we need to follow the data if we actually want young people to thrive.”
Read the full Crime Lab story here.