The Baltimore-based Black Mental Health Alliance, Dr. Laurie Graham (principal investigator), The Collaborative (Dr. Kyla Liggett-Creel, director, and Mariel Pfister, assistant director), and The PEACE Team recently received $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to implement, expand, and evaluate a Community-Based Violence Prevention Project in West Baltimore.
This innovative three-year initiative employs returning citizens as credible messengers. Credible messengers will engage residents on the corners of open-air drug markets and in violent crime hotspots to offer violence prevention messaging, violence intervention, mental health services, youth entrepreneurship training, and case management to decrease violence and crime. This strategy is based on evidence-informed practices such as case management, mental health services, and near-peer mentoring. The goal of the proposed project is to reduce and prevent violent crime and promote community healing.