The Division of Probation (DOP) has come beneath fireplace previously few months after abruptly slicing funding this previous August for NextSTEPS, a preferred and efficient mentorship program that served younger residents within the metropolis’s public housing developments. The transfer has left this system’s proponents shocked and has prompted bigger considerations concerning the route of the DOP beneath new Commissioner Juanita Holmes, who was appointed in March.
Subsequent STEPS (Striving In the direction of Engagement and Peaceable Options) was a violence prevention program operated by 17 service suppliers that contracted with DOP. These organizations provided particular person and group mentoring to greater than 200 younger folks in 14 NYCHA developments who had skilled severe violence.
This system started in 2014 as a part of then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s Mayor’s Motion Plan for Neighborhood Security, which was designed to deal with disproportionate ranges of violence on the chosen NYCHA developments. It was modeled on Arches, a program began beneath the Bloomberg administration that focused 16- to 24-year–olds on probation.
Each Arches and Subsequent STEPS make use of credible messengers—those that have expertise with the felony justice system—to have interaction youth in a cognitive behavioral therapy-based curriculum designed to steer them away from violence. However in contrast to Arches, Subsequent STEPS was open to all youth, no matter probation standing.
“[With] Subsequent STEPS, we had been in a position to get [to the youth] earlier than they turned justice concerned,” mentioned Dorin Hammond, deputy challenge director on the Residing Redemption Group Growth Company, a nonprofit that operated each packages for residents of Harlem’s St. Nicholas Homes.
Subsequent STEPS had an annual finances of $2.5 million. In keeping with Hammond, many service suppliers had been advised in Might that this system could be prolonged till June 2025, however in late August, the DOP went again on that call.
On August 24, the 17 service suppliers contracted with DOP to function this system obtained an sudden e mail, advising them that the division would not present funding. The message included a directive to stop operations by August 31. Service suppliers expressed their astonishment and disappointment in a letter addressed to Holmes.
Tee Haywood, the lead mentor for the Osborne Affiliation—the Subsequent STEPS supplier for Bronx NYCHA developments—advised the Amsterdam Information concerning the abrupt nature of this system cuts.
“It was very sudden,” he mentioned. “They gave us a discover and two weeks later, they took this system out.”
Holmes doubled down on these cuts in a name with service suppliers on September 6, and continued to defend her determination at a September 29 assembly of the Metropolis Council’s Committee on Legal Justice.
On the council assembly, Holmes asserted that Subsequent STEPS was redundant to different city-run mentoring packages, and that its service suppliers had failed to supply her with proof demonstrating it was profitable in lowering recidivism.
“Sadly, Subsequent STEPS was minimize as a result of they couldn’t help the metrics I used to be searching for,” she mentioned.
Holmes attributed the brief discover of cancellation to the truth that she was solely made conscious of this system a couple of weeks earlier than the contract was set to run out.
“It was simply thrust, you recognize, in my face,” she mentioned.
After offering her testimony and taking questions from council members, Holmes left the assembly earlier than representatives of service suppliers gave their testimonies.
Service suppliers’ response
Each council members and repair suppliers on the assembly rejected Holmes’s justifications for slicing Subsequent STEPS.
They argued that the credible messenger-led nature of this system set it other than different mentoring packages and made it uniquely outfitted to have interaction hard-to-reach youth. Additionally they pointed to a 2018 analysis that demonstrated Arches was profitable in lowering recidivism as proof that Subsequent STEPS ought to be thought-about an efficient program as nicely.
“Commissioner Holmes failed to supply a transparent, credible, and even rational clarification for the abrupt termination of the Subsequent STEPS program,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler advised AmNews.
Holmes mentioned she was solely in a position to get attendance figures from Subsequent STEPS service suppliers, when she was searching for clear, measurable outcomes of this system, like serving to individuals obtain an academic milestone, safe employment, or keep out of gangs.
However suppliers mentioned that they had been by no means advised what information Holmes was searching for. As well as, they mentioned they produced month-to-month studies that included updates on participant outcomes like GED attainment, school enrollment, and employment.
Total, service suppliers and council members took the cuts as an indication that the DOP was heading in a extra punitive route beneath a director with a protracted historical past on the NYPD.
“I’m deeply, deeply involved…that the division is regressing to its darker days of a punitive company, of an company that appears just like the police division,” mentioned Councilmember Alexa Avilés on the listening to.
Hammond mentioned Holmes’s actions are an indication that she is skeptical of community-based, credible messenger-led packages, noting how she touted the NYPD youth mentorship packages—Blue Chips and Lady Speak—as alternate options to Subsequent STEPS. Holmes began each these packages throughout her time on the NYPD.
“The credible messenger motion, permitting issues to be credible messenger-led—she’s not okay with it. And these are the…undertones that you just hear along with her administration,” Hammond mentioned.
Whereas Holmes insisted on the listening to that these enrolled in this system could be directed towards different mentoring packages, service suppliers mentioned {that a} profitable transition had not but taken place. As an alternative, they mentioned, many individuals have been left in limbo, placing them in danger for participating in violence.
“Once we minimize efficient preventative packages, extra younger adults find yourself in our felony justice system, the place we waste hundreds of thousands of {dollars} incarcerating folks, as a substitute of serving to them get heading in the right direction,” Restler advised the AmNews, noting that the inhabitants of minors incarcerated within the metropolis has doubled within the final two years: The typical every day inhabitants for youth in safe detention elevated from 106 in June 2021 to 227 this August.
Others on the listening to questioned the fee effectiveness of slicing this system. Ahmed Rodriguez, director for neighborhood engagement and mediation at Queensbridge Homes, famous that it prices round $560,000 to incarcerate a person for a yr, and that packages like Subsequent STEPS may help scale back this expense.
“We’re saving cash by investing on this program,” he testified.
Holmes declined an interview request, however the DOP offered a press release echoing her reasoning on the listening to:
“Primarily based on a radical annual analysis, DOP has decided that younger New Yorkers residing in public housing can get the mentorship help they deserve by different current packages and won’t renew this $2.5 million program. Each single New Yorker served by this program will be capable of get mentorship help from the very same suppliers by different DOP and metropolis packages, together with Arches, Blue Chips, and Lady Speak,” the assertion learn partially. (Whereas Arches targets the identical age group as Subsequent STEPS, Lady Speak is designed for teenage ladies, and Blue Chips is an athletic-based program for 12-17 yr olds).
Inside Residing Redemption’s Subsequent STEPS program
At Residing Redemption, the cuts to Subsequent STEPS have hit exhausting.
This system is housed at Harlem’s Soul Saving Station, a church constructed on the muse of second possibilities—particularly for these affected by the authorized felony justice system. All through the constructing, murals encouraging justice and peace cowl the partitions. There’s a T-shirt press and a newly put in 3D printer, which Hammond hopes will each encourage kids to have interaction with their creativity.
Over eight years, Residing Redemption’s Subsequent STEPS program served 192 youth. This system operated in cohorts of 16, with individuals usually graduating inside 9 months. Hammond mentioned 74 of their youth had been linked to employment, and 11 have enrolled in school.
At first of this system, individuals would work with mentors to create individualized success plans.
“We’d do an consumption with them, have them do a self-assessment, and simply meet them the place they’re at,” Hammond defined.
This system itself consisted of 72 classes, with individuals attending two instances per week. The classes concerned each one-on-one and group mentoring, utilizing an interactive journaling-based curriculum that aimed to assist youth change their mindset about violence by instructing them de-escalation methods and how one can deal with troublesome feelings.
As well as, the mentors helped youth with sensible duties, like acquiring a Metro card and an ID, and getting ready for court docket dates or job interviews.
Every participant additionally obtained a $60 stipend each two weeks for attending the required classes. The stipends had been useful not only for the individuals, but in addition their households, a lot of whom had been struggling to get by.
“That stipend may not look like loads to different folks, however that $40, $60, goes a good distance if you find yourself making an attempt to feed a home(maintain),” mentioned Christopher Moore, a program coordinator at Residing Redemption.
The stipend additionally gave individuals a way of self-sufficiency and hope.
“It was displaying that the child was in a position to assist as a result of they had been in a position to do issues. Mom’s Day didn’t must be so unhappy [anymore]…as a result of they get an opportunity to purchase one thing. Christmas [didn’t] must be so horrible,” added Dedric “Beloved” Hammond, the positioning’s chief credible messenger supervisor.
Along with monetary help, individuals cherished the emotionally supportive surroundings of this system—a lot that they’d come even on days they weren’t required to be there.
“It gave them a possibility to drop their guard and be capable of actually really feel secure,” Beloved Hammond mentioned.
The truth that the mentors had been accessible for individuals all day, not simply throughout program hours, contributed to this sense of security.
As well as, the mentors’ personal lived experiences allowed them to know the lives of their individuals, just like the gangs or crews they is perhaps a part of, or their household conditions, which meant individuals may belief and depend on them.
“They work within the wee hours within the evening to assist triage and mediate all sorts of traumas and adversities that our youth and their households are dealing with,” Hammond mentioned.
Hammond gave an instance of 1 participant who sought recommendation for how one can keep out of a crew that was making an attempt to recruit him. Hammond mentioned they had been in a position to make use of their connections to the crew to assist extract the participant. On account of their assist, the participant was in a position keep on observe and go to school.
“Two years into school, he despatched a textual content saying, ‘Thanks for being in my life. If it wasn’t for Subsequent STEPS, I might have by no means made it to school,’” Hammond mentioned.
Cuts “heartbreaking” for individuals
For now, Residing Redemption is constant to have interaction with the youth who had been in Subsequent STEPS, however the mentors are fearful that the instability attributable to the cuts places youth in danger for justice system involvement in the long term. 5 of the present individuals may have the chance to switch to Arches, however Hammond mentioned that there is no such thing as a mentorship program equal to Subsequent STEPS for individuals who aren’t eligible for Arches, which he famous is already underfunded.
Two of Residing Redemption’s Subsequent STEPS individuals expressed disappointment concerning the DOP’s determination to slash this system.
Keonna Bishop, a 20-year-old who credit Subsequent STEPS with serving to her graduate from highschool, land a job at Chick-fil-A, and save and put together for faculty, was shocked when she heard this system was being minimize.
“Why would you’re taking one thing away that’s additionally giving again and really serving to folks, truly altering folks’s lives in a approach? As a result of Subsequent STEPS modified my life,” she mentioned, explaining that this system offered her with a second household.
“Having employees residing within the precise initiatives the place you keep [is a big benefit] as a result of they perceive what you’ve been going by,” Bishop mentioned.
Participant Isieni Bermudez mentioned he lately returned to this system after initially becoming a member of round 2017. The 24-year-old mentioned he may at all times depend on Hammond and the opposite mentors, and that they’re now serving to him navigate life as a single father.
Listening to that this system was minimize was “heartbreaking,” he mentioned. “I don’t need it to shut. I don’t need it to finish, as a result of there’s simply a lot that they attempt to do for the neighborhood.”
Tyree Hicks and Kyani Freeman, alumni of Osborne Affiliation programming who at the moment are credible messengers, additionally rued the tip of the NextSTEPS program.
“A whole lot of my youth don’t have a secure haven place to go to anymore or mentors that they might depend on or perhaps a place the place they can deliver their associates simply to come back to unrelease baggage or issues or points they might be dealing with at college [and] in the neighborhood,” mentioned Hicks. “That’s one of many greatest results that we have now had since shutting down this system.”
“In the event that they don’t have a secure haven or base they will come to, they are going to by no means cope…youngsters want that house to grieve and [come into] their internal self,” added Freeman.
What’s subsequent?
For the reason that DOP minimize Subsequent STEPS, Residing Redemption’s program stays beneath operation with out funding on both finish. But Hammond and his mentees proceed to point out up with out promise of wage or stipend.
“Although this system is shut down, mainly, it’s not going to cease us from (conversing) with (mentors).”, as a result of it’s one thing that they constructed,” mentioned Bermudez. “They got here from the road, they got here from the ’hood; all of us did. We nonetheless dwell in St. Nick. For them to truly construct it from scratch to place youth like us in a program the place it helps us be higher—you’ll be able to’t give that up.”
To that finish, Residing Redemption plans to host a rally in Harlem within the subsequent few weeks to attract consideration to the cuts.
On the Metropolis Council facet, Restler mentioned he and different colleagues would supply extra oversight of the DOP, and look into methods they will refund Subsequent STEPS.
“If we are able to establish the assets to revive Subsequent STEPS, we completely ought to,” he mentioned.
Residing Redemption can be exploring different methods to fund Subsequent STEPS, comparable to by the Division of Youth and Group Growth, or by funding from a well-resourced group or basis. To keep away from an analogous scenario sooner or later, they need to be sure they’ve extra management over this system and its funding.
The individuals are decided to combat for Subsequent STEPS as nicely.
“We’re nonetheless going to push the identical approach that we’ve been pushing, as a result of we’re St. Nick’s youngsters. We by no means quit,” Bishop mentioned.
Shannon Chaffers is a Report for America corps member who writes about gun violence for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps preserve her writing tales like this one; please take into account making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at the moment by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps preserve him writing tales like this one; please take into account making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at the moment by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
