Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth to all of those who are in attendance today, those who are joining us online, welcome to our public work session.

Want to acknowledge our city staff that is in the room with us and members of our Portsmouth United team.

Also want to acknowledge our interim city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger.

Um City Clerk, Step White, and also Mr.

City Assessor, Steve Edwards.

Thank you all for being here.

I expected our city manager will be joining us shortly.

And so with that.

Yes, sir.

Miss Ryan, present.

Dr.

Dyson, Mr.

Hugo.

Present.

Mr.

Moody, Miss Thomas, Mr.

Tillage.

Here.

Mayor Glecker.

Here.

Thank you.

So we'll wait for Mr.

Carter.

I assume he's in route.

You mean Peter?

Yes.

Beautiful day today.

PIT next week.

P I T is next week.

PIT starts next week.

PIT.

Is it next week?

I think it's the week after.

Week after.

I can't remember.

15th.

15th.

Sound familiar?

That sounds better.

15th.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Peace week is next week.

Yeah, peace week.

Peace week next week.

Yep.

And PIT is the 15th.

A lot going on in these next couple months.

We have um State of the City on the 8th.

Okay.

Of May.

Yeah, umja.

Emoji will be in May.

A lot of things happening in May.

June's gonna be back too.

Sale Virginia.

Shale Virginia.

I just did the mayor's minute on sale, Virginia.

Well, actually, I thought it was sale fifth 250.

That's what I've been told to say, sale 250.

So I've been saying sale 250s.

The overall, the whole course of it is sale 250, then our pieces.

Both are correct.

Yeah.

That's gonna be busy.

Real busy.

I put the manager behind schedule this morning.

Six o'clock on my caliber, so I'm I'm sitting at my desk work.

There you go.

I know.

That's what I thought.

So okay, welcome, Mr.

Carter.

I already introduced you.

Okay.

So you have the floor.

Well, actually, um, first chief Jenkins.

Chief.

Or Miss Chantel, are you are you gonna be the presenter this evening?

Which one?

I'm not the president.

He just walked into the so today.

We have that was a setup.

Um today we have with us Mr.

Marcus McAllister and Dr.

Chico Tailman.

They're gonna be presenting um to you all about just some basic CBI.

Um, and I'm not gonna prolong it because we have a limited amount of time.

They have a lot of information to cover.

I'll go ahead and bring them up.

Well, I'm gonna jump in first because Dr.

Chilman will lead the PowerPoint presentation, but I just want to say um good evening, everybody.

Glad to be here with you.

My name is Marcus McAllister.

I'm the CEO of McAllister Consultancy and Training.

I'm someone that's been involved in CBI for 24 years now.

Um, I also serve as the dean of students at the University of Chicago for our newly community violence intervention leadership academy, one of a kind in the United States right now.

We did our first graduation at the White House.

We're working on our fifth graduation coming up.

We're the only institution to ever do a graduation at the White House and academia, you know.

So we're proud of that.

But I'm someone that's been doing the work.

I work with many and many of a cities, Birmingham, Chicago, St.

Louis, New Orleans, and CVI work.

So that's just a quick snapshot of who I am.

Glad to be here.

I'm also a pastor, so I wear a lot of hats.

I'm a pastor back in my hometown of Waukegan, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.

So honored to be here.

I'm gonna turn over to my colleague Dr.

Chico.

He can run through the PowerPoint, and I'll be here for any questions that come afterwards.

Thank you.

Wacheegan.

Yes, Waukegan.

That brings back memories.

Oh, yeah, you know Walkegan.

Great Lakes, Illinois.

Navy Base is right there.

Great Lakes Navy.

I live right near the Navy Base.

Ain't that something?

Yes.

Or others.

Not the first night, I can assure you of that.

But it got better after a time.

Yes, sir.

Good to see you, sir.

Okay, good.

Um, man, it's a blessing, man, to be before y'all.

Um, my name is Dr.

Chico Tillman.

I serve as the executive director of the community violence intervention leadership at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy.

Um, today I'm gonna really walk you through what CVI is.

Um fortunate and unfortunately, um, I was one of the people that created the term, so I know very well what it is under the previous administration, just to give you some historical context.

Um, I play how many people know what ARPA dollars is.

I have write the policy to get ARPA dollars for black and brown communities throughout the United States, and when we were writing the portion that was around um ensuring people that do justice work, whether it was law enforcement or CBI.

We were concerned about people that did violence prevention broadly, absorbing the money because of their infrastructure.

And what that means is people like the boys club, um, I'm in Boys and Girls Club, um, YMCA.

They great, but they don't work primarily with individuals that's involved in the cycle of harm.

A lot of times they work with everybody.

They work with communities, they work with regardless.

And we wanted to ensure that we could reduce violence across America.

So we went back and forth with the Department of Justice to create a term that would capture the population that we wanted the money directed to and the communities we want to serve.

Um, my background is in social science.

I'm a criminologist by trade, but I ascribe more to a public health perspective or discipline.

So as I was thinking about it, um, it's a dude named Bandera.

If you were any anybody ever took humanities and social sciences, he took, he took this methodology or this theory around an ecological system, which means everybody gets involved to solve a problem so that no one particular person bears the burden.

And then I begin to think about CVI more as an ecosystem than an organizational program.

And what I'm gonna walk you through first, let me just give you some context too around what CBI is.

CVI organizations are organizations that work with individuals at the highest risk that seek to reduce violence in the near term.

What we mean by near term is within 24 months.

So we work with individuals that are caught up or ensnared in the cycle of violence.

That's very different from all those other things.

Individuals most likely to be a perpetrator or victim of violence.

An individual with a proclivity to be violent or commit aggressive acts, or individual that's doing stuff that's gonna get them hurt.

Typically, if everybody been to high school, I know everybody has because you don't get here without at least going to high school.

It was a group of people who your friends or your teachers or your coaches told you to stay away from.

Those are the people that CVI go to work gravitate toward.

Because we know that they're gonna be up to something.

So we try to direct them or redirect them into pro-social lifestyles because those are the ones that are actually causing violence to happen in our community.

According to many economists across the country, one percent of the population contributes to about 75% of the violence in the community.

And you might say, Chico, I don't believe that.

But if you think about it, when you go to a high school, if it's a hundred people, it ain't no 95 people cutting up.

It might be five to ten people.

Five people.

If it's five people out of a hundred, that's five percent.

But typically it ain't no five people where you just scared of or bullying and all that.

It's a small group.

So we focus on that small group and try and redirect their lives and get them in the services.

But with the ecosystem, we're gonna talk about not only what the organization does, but the role that you play.

Because I think that's very important.

Just to talk about what the group does is one thing, but to let you know how you can be involved and be in service to reducing violence is a whole nother one.

Is that all right?

Yes.

I hope it makes a little sense.

So let's say community violence intervention is not a single program, as I said, but it's what a coordinated network of people, institutional strategies working together to prevent violence and interrupt harm and create conditions.

And the reason why that's that's that's critical, people aren't a what?

They aren't homogeneous and they're not a monolith.

That means every person not gonna need the same.

It'll be great if I have if I had like a um what we call it, a boutique store and everybody came in and wanted the same soup.

No, CVI is more like a Walmart.

Where you got all these different departments and sell everything.

Unfortunately, we don't have the funding in those cities to finance an organization large like a Walmart.

So what we do is we take all the specialty stores, and we refer people to things as they're needed.

Because if a person comes, the the root or the tip of the iceberg typically is there committing some type of harm, whether they're being a victim of it or perpetrator of it, but the underlying facts factors might be quite different.

It might be substance use disorder, it might be unhoused, it might be mental health disorder, it might be a plethora of things, it might be a diagnosis.

You might need, we don't know what they need.

So that's why we partner with different people, organizations, even city government and agencies to get where we found out what's really going on to get the person the help we need.

And the reason why that is so important is because it's no way the organization you hire is gonna have people that all the people that's able to do that.

So that's where partnerships come into play, and everybody is involved in reducing violence and have a role to play, if that makes sense.

And I'm gonna go into the specificity about each person's role.

First, let me start with why well, Chico, if everybody's involved, why the hell do we need uh um CVI organization?

What's the name of your organization again?

Why we need Pivot for Peace?

What the hell is Pivot for Peace?

I know some of y'all saying that in y'all, man.

We don't need to get no money to pivot for peace.

Yes, you do.

Yes, you do.

Because pivot for peace utilizes trusted or credible messengers to engage individuals at the highest risk, because many of them came out of it.

The greatest analogy is something that we all can relate to and all are very familiar with.

It's two organizations that has tremendous amount of success, and you're gonna be like, damn, you own it, Chico.

And you could see the value in it.

NA and AA.

Why is NA and AA successful?

That's the that's a real question.

Why is narcotics?

Why is anonymous or alcoholism?

Why is it specifically because they engage the people?

I mean, they meet the people where they are.

Well, who else?

Okay, another reason, why else?

Who do they use?

What do you mean who do they use?

Um people that struggle.

They they use kindred spirits, people that don't walk that path that understand, they can relate to them, that could say, I know I already know the urges you having because I had them.

I know what you're feeling, I know what fidgeting do.

This is how they can walk them through the process because they've been where they been.

It's the same as it's it in a in a in a crazy sick way, it's the same as mentorship.

People who've been through something can help you not just walk through it, but walk through it in a way that they never could, because they're gonna tell you not about the successes that they had, but their failures and the pitfalls to avoid.

Some of the best coaches was the worst.

Think about sports.

If we think about the best coaches ever, I'm gonna name a couple, and you're gonna say, damn, that dude's smart.

You're gonna say, I never thought about that.

Think about basketball, Phil Jackson, right?

He's one of the greatest, right?

I'm from Chicago, I gotta say that.

Or think about Bill Belichick, another dude, great coach.

Now I'm gonna ask you a question that's really gonna make you think.

How were they as players?

They weren't good as players.

If you look at they, they they but they were able to articulate the things they learned in a way that were able to advance the people that they taught.

It wasn't that they was great players.

Neither one of them was great players or had great playing careers, but they learned so much by what they've been through and they were able to articulate it, and that's the same thing.

Um trusted and credible messengers are able to do.

They're able to trick articulate to individuals, hey, this is what you should be doing.

And while they are so valuable, they got something that nobody in this room has, and that's access to individuals at the highest risk.

Access in a way where they operate in integrity and transparency.

Because you might say, Well, I got access to them, not the way a person that's a trusted messenger.

Because they're gonna tell you the real why they're doing what they doing.

But when a person is in an official capacity, they're gonna bullshit you.

They're gonna tell you what you want to hear.

They ain't gonna tell you, well, this is what really happened is I pulled a gun on the dude.

Or what really happened is I did this.

Or what really happened is we arguing over this.

And that's why we get trusted mess messengers to go in and really pull the truth out of because I can't help you until I know what's really going on.

If you don't tell me what's going on, I can't help.

So that's why we value trusted messengers for their access to people at the highest risk of being a perpetrator or a victim of violence.

I hope that makes sense to you, and we're gonna have time for questions.

I'm gonna go a little fast.

How much time we got, Chantil?

Until okay, well, we gonna, I want to really get into some dialogue because these are some sharp people, and I know they got some good questions.

So many organizations operate in and mainly in those four buckets of work.

Street outreach are individuals that's on the ground, building relationships with individuals at the highest risk.

It's it's really three pathways that we um identify people.

The first is like this, it's called it's a crazy term created by this guy no name Papa Cristo called social networking, where an algorithm predicts who's the next person that's gonna be a victim or perpetrator crime.

That's one way.

The second one, you're gonna say, man, I know you say Chico, that's way out.

Well, we got two more.

The second one is the criminal justice system.

They done did something before.

They done hurt people.

We ain't gotta guess what he's gonna do because he done did it before.

He done did it multiple times.

So we're gonna recruit individuals coming out of the reject out of the justice system right as they come out to get them on a different path.

Because we know they have a proclivity to commit violent acts.

And the third one is even clearer than that.

The community.

The community knows who they're afraid of or who's calling habit.

By us working in the community, they're gonna tell us, like, man, you heard what so-and-so doing, or what what this person that's why trusted medicine's gotta be embedded in the community to have a heartbeat and he had an ear of the community so they know up to speed in real time what's going on, and they know who's causing havoc or who's on the verge to committing harm to the community.

So they gonna as opposed to being critical of the person, they're gonna reach out to them and try and get them some help before they become a victim or a perpetrator of crime.

Violence interruptor do the same things, but their focus, violence interrupters focuses really on mediating conflict once it's already started, whether it's talking to the perpetrator or victim, but we focus more so on the aggressor so that he won't commit harm.

But we do have individuals who work in the survivor network that work with victims who've been traumatized by harm.

Workforce development.

After we kind of get them into a get them into a right hair space where they want to become a participant of the program, then we try to get them into a pro-social lifestyle, and I believe that starts with employment to get some social capital where they feel like they got something to lose.

Like we, you know, talk to them about what other unaligned factors they got, but we want to get them some some gameful employment.

And we use trauma-informed care, meaning we take an access based or positive measure when talking to them.

Even about the deficiencies in their life, because we always trying to show them you no matter where you're at, you can go up.

That's that's that's my attitude.

No matter what you're dealing with, you can go up, you can turn it around.

So you say, Chico, who else involved?

One of the things we know is like every individual, as I spoke of that becomes a participant of the program, have a plethora of needs.

So it's critical.

One of the ways the city is involved is by leveraging the city resources to allow individuals at the highest risk to have expedited services, whether it's a housing, employment, health care, substance use disorder, education.

If you think about it, you say, Chico, why would I expedite the services of somebody at the highest risk?

The greatest, the greatest analogy I could give you is a hospital.

And you say, well, how do that?

How do how does that go together?

Well, I'm gonna tell you, I'm glad you asked.

Me and you, Hugo in the in the line.

You're in front of me for a hospital, right?

You you twisted your ankle, oh, you got that old, got old bum knee.

We going to put you was going to play some golf.

You, you you out you almost got you a whole eagle and you twisted your knee with your swing, right?

So you limping a little bit, right?

I come in a stroke, you you ready to see the doctor so you can get back and watch watch the rest of the masters.

You you know you done hit the ball good, you what you're trying to get back to the house.

I come in a stroke victim.

They, what they gonna do?

They're gonna triage you and they're gonna take the stroke victim first.

Right, because that's why we say we should expedite the service of individuals at the highest risk, because they have the greatest need, and we want to keep the community safe.

We know if this individual, they don't have strong social emotional skills and their response might induce violence in the community.

So if it's something as simple as getting them one of the social services that we have available, we want to get them into service as possible, the same way we would the stroke victim over the person with the twisted knee.

So we want to try and get them expedite the services to get them get, and it ain't some people say, Well, is it a benefit?

No, we're thinking about the community.

I told somebody one time they thought money was the answer.

I say, you could use the city council to do something like for the licenses, for getting licenses, if you would pivot, if you're with the organization and you come in there, you go to the front of the line.

And somebody be like, that's not fair.

No, yes, it is fair.

If somebody trying to kill this person or this person been doing harm, I want them in and out the DMV.

I don't want them in there and they come, somebody looking for them and I'm in there.

Get them in and out.

Because he causes safety concern.

So it's just sometimes it's just the simplicity of an idea when you think about it, you say, Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

People, because they got a higher need and they cause a safety concern, not just for themselves, but for everybody around them.

So we think of innovative ways to get them in and out to get them services too, because they don't always think rational.

If that makes sense.

Also, these are just some of the things.

It's other things you that could go up in here.

I just wanted to give you an idea of what CVI does because the organization, though it is the court that has access to the people, reminding them can't get them no education, they can't get them employed, they can't get them all the other things, so they have to have a connectivity to other things because when the person comes, I could stop the violence, but if that's not the court or why they're committing violent acts, then it's gonna be me working with the same person over and over again until I meet that unmet need, that underlying issue.

Does that make sense?

Also, it's it's important, like in most cities, they have survivor networks.

And those are individuals that actually lost a loved one the violence.

And what we have them do is minister to other people that go through the trauma of losing the loved one from gun violence or something.

Because in the same way we talked about NA and AA, they understand what the person is going through and they help them walk through this journey to try to reach a pathway of healing.

Because grief has no timetable, so they just help them find comfort and just knowing somebody there.

And you need people that survivors around or survivor network because people who haven't been through it are gonna see it through a different lens.

I've heard people who haven't experienced it say, man, you gotta come out of that.

You know, like I'm serious, like you could see a person, just imagine a person that lost somebody.

I I know people that lost their baby.

When I say baby, a 17-year-old, 18-year-old, you might say, Chico, you need to come up out of that, get up out the bed, you gotta go to work.

Well, a survivor might understand exactly what they're going through and say, I slept in the van.

You know, let me do this, this, this the proper thing to do.

They're gonna be more sensitive to the needs of a person because they sat where they sat.

Whereas I ain't gonna have no point of reference to what they're going through because I ain't gone through it.

So that's why it's critical that we have individuals who suffered in that way to try to help those that are enduring that type of stuff.

Another thing we have is hospital-based intervention.

Hospital and it what we call when an individual is injured is the golden hour, and we try to meet people bedside.

For one reason we want to stop this the cycle of violence.

We want somebody actually going to the hospital, service in a and they at their most vulnerable state and they're open to changing.

That data has proven a lot of people have changed after they done got shot, they they they realize fat me greasy, like this lifestyle, and you know, like it can happen to me too.

And a lot of times the right conversation can help them what?

Course correct and go down a different path.

But also we want to help them get on a course to healing through rehabilitation, you know, and let them know what service is available, but also we want to stop retaliation too.

Because a lot of times when people are shot, people think about retaliation, retaliatory action and all that other thing, and that happens immediately after a person suffers injury.

Typically, the hospital or HVIP are um jointly connected to the people on the ground in the community.

Because typically, people that go to a trauma once hospital come from all over the city, and if you just had a hospital violence and invention program, they probably wouldn't know all the people from all the different communities, if that makes sense.

What's the government's role?

In many, in many cities, what we have what you call offices of violence prevention, and and their main function, their first function too, I would say the first function is to convene.

Government has a power or authority that a lot of other entities don't.

They have a platform and pulpit to bring everybody together, including the social services and the people they funding.

They could bring everybody to the table and help strategize about how we're gonna work together as an ecosystem and move forward.

And that's the main role that they play as a convener to bring everybody together.

The second thing they do is a funding, they fund.

A lot of people say, why do cities fund?

Because it's nothing, can't nothing beat the tax dollar.

It's impossible.

And some people talk about budgets and all of that and what we have and what we don't have.

The return on investment for a homicide is typically one for every one dollar spent, you save 27.

Just think about it.

In most cities, uh aggravated assault costs anywhere from 500,000 up to a million dollars, and a homicide could cost up to two million dollars.

Societal costs.

When I talk about hospital bill, state's attorney, um, police investigation, when you count all the societal costs, it gets up there.

So for every homicide that say, you say the city or you say the surrounding area, two million dollars, and for every shooting, you save them up to a million dollars.

So really we can't afford not to invest in it.

Because it's not only, I know I know a lot of times we talk about it from a humanistic perspective and say we save in lives, but when you balance in budgets and trying to figure out like, do I invest in this?

The first thing we want to know when we sitting at tables like this, what's my ROI?

Because that's what it is, an investment.

It's not a grant, it's not funding, it's not charity.

Because if that was the case, you would give them the money and wouldn't care what they did.

But when you invest in something, you you have an expectation of a return.

So your return is that less people are gonna die, and I'm gonna spend less money on other things.

If it's less homicides, it's less police investigation.

So yeah, you're gonna save money less overtime.

It's less a whole lot of stuff.

So that's how we save money during CVI.

So it's not just me doing the right thing, because some people, you know, look at it like it's me doing the right thing, it's me helping the community.

No, it's a it makes business sense too.

It makes business sense.

And that's what we that's the way we gotta think about it too.

So if you invest in two million dollars, and violence and 30 or 20 people less die, you you you you you put up two million dollars and you save 40 million dollars in societal cost.

I just want you to because we got to wrap our mind around it.

Because ain't no, I ain't nobody gonna invest no money and not get nothing in return just because they feel it's the right thing or a good thing to do.

And know what's the beautiful thing?

I had the same conversation with the last administration, and guess how much money they gave me?

Five billion dollars.

Because I told them it's nowhere in hell, because they offered me 90 million and I turned it down.

I said it's nowhere in hell you could you could solve a quarter of a trillion dollar problem with 90 million dollars.

I said 90 million dollars is not even two million dollars a state.

And that's how I got the money in the ARPA dollars.

That's why you got ARPA dollars for for criminal justice.

I say we can't do nothing.

I say you could take, I told them that ain't gonna do nothing.

Because they asked me how much impact it'll have.

I say, none.

That's how we got ARPA dollars.

And I say, I'm just a simple boy from Chicago.

I say, but I know if you get two million dollars a state in a state like Virginia, you got Richmond, you got you got what, Newport News, you got Portsmouth.

I say they can't divide no damn two million dollars.

That ain't gonna do nothing.

That's a drop in the bucket.

And you gotta think like that too.

Like, I gotta invest.

When you invest in this work, you can't give me, just say you give me some money, right?

I said, man, you know what?

I say, Mayor Glover, I got an idea for a new car.

You say, okay, Chico, you say, here go 20,000.

And I build a car, and you come back and you say, Chico, the car ain't running.

I say, Well, you didn't give me enough money to buy no wheels.

That's why it ain't rolling.

It gotta be investment enough where it can function and robust, where it could do what it wants to do.

And this is what I'm gonna tell you something that's wrong with our country.

And I know I'm getting a little bit off topic.

I'm gonna tell you what's wrong with our country.

I'm a social scientist, and every other damn science.

If you when they try something and it don't work, I'm gonna ask my sister, what's your name, sis?

Catherine Bryant, Miss Bryant.

If I'm a scientist, I invest in something, I say, man, I'm almost there.

We gotta tweak it a little bit, it ain't working.

Just say I'm coming up with some medicine for anything.

What they do when I say I'm almost there and it ain't working.

More funding.

Why is it with black and brown people we take what we we we threaten them to take what they have, but with every other science, it could be me building a damn alarm clock.

They say you almost there, we're gonna give you some more money.

Get to the finish line.

With every other thing, that's what we do.

With every other thing, when we close, we don't say we're gonna take funding.

We say what we're gonna invest the money, we won't see this thing through.

And that gotta be the mindset about saving the lives.

And that's why we want an ecosystem.

So if I just do charity and give a group money, then if it rise or fail, it's they fault.

But if it's an ecosystem, we gotta share responsibility, and when it rise, we all rise and we all contribute it, and that's what the ecosystem is about.

And if it's and if it's having challenges, we all have challenges, and we come to the table, but if we're all at the table, we can see where the gap set.

Because we collecting data, we could say, man, well, it's happening with the warm handoffs when they take them over here, they not getting services or or you're not accessing the right people, or somebody dropping the ball because we all at the table.

If you think about it, it's not it's it's I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you something, it ain't rocket science.

If we all at the table, then we're gonna see where the gaps is.

And that's that's where it's been successful.

I'm gonna tell you something.

You say, Chico, how you know this stuff worked.

In 1996, New York had 1,100 homicides.

Now New York is the safest big city in America and hovers around 200 homicides with 8 million people.

How did they do it, Chico?

I'm glad you asked.

They had the largest investment in CVI in the country at about three to 400 million.

But 900 people less are dying every year.

You say, Chico, well, that's just an anomaly.

Oh, LA did the same thing.

LA got the second largest investment in CBI at around 380 million.

LA went from 1100 homicides all the way down to 300.

Chicago had one of the largest decreases now.

At first, people said Chicago was static and one moving.

I'm gonna show you something.

And I'm from Chicago and we created, see, we came, we started this.

Know why Chicago was static.

Who could guess?

Because we started it out and we taught New York and LA.

We had the damn idea, but we didn't have no our mayor in our city and our state wouldn't invest.

So we watched the people we taught get a decline while we stayed around 800 homicides.

We didn't this big decrease we got, it's no coincidence.

We invested 250 million and for the first time in the last 50 years, we under 500 homicides in our city.

Because we put our money where our mouth and we saw results.

So if we serious about it, I tell people if you want to know what a city or a county or organization care about, look at their damn budget.

The budget tells people what you care about.

That's right.

All that other stuff don't mean nothing.

When I got my job, the university, the last three jobs I got, I got poached.

Somebody seen what I was doing, came and got me and asked me to do a job.

And they tell me all this fluff.

I said, let me see the budget.

Because the budget gonna tell me what your real interests are.

What your priorities are.

And if your real interest is in saving lives, then it should be some, it should be some type of investment.

And when people say, well, we ain't got the money, that's a damn lie.

Because it's always some discretionary funds in every budget, because I I work at a university, an eight billion dollar university.

So when they tell me at the University of Chicago they ain't got no money, I say, you lying.

We got an eight billion dollar endowment.

So I know if you value me or not.

Let me go to the next thing.

The last thing the city do is able to do is remove barriers.

What I mean by that, you can make bad actors play in the sand that don't want to play in the sand.

Because if you tell them you don't want you don't do the work, we ain't gonna find you, or we're gonna move this around.

And you could do it with ordinances or something as simple as an email with the right person in authority.

You can move levers at the city that other people can't move.

That's why the city is critical in getting this work done.

And it ain't everything ain't even about money.

It's just being able to leverage the different agencies to get the people the support that they need.

Of course, you need a philanthropic partner for innovation because times is changing.

This world's so different from the world I grew up in, and I ain't dating myself, but I'm almost 60.

I know I look good, I don't look sick.

I'm 50, I'll be 56 this year.

I'm beating on 60.

I know that that's right.

You got my crap for, yeah, I look good.

I'm 55, I'll be 56.

But the world I grew up in wasn't nothing like this world is today.

It's totally different.

So we need innovation to keep up with the times.

Different way to keep us moving, and we want to get young minds involved how we move the body of work forward.

So we want to do other things, but our main focus is on stopping violence.

A lot of people think about prevention, but prevention has a longitudinal effect.

Working with a lot of people say this, well, I just want to work with the kids.

Well, work with them.

That ain't gonna stop the violence.

Ain't no six-year-old shooting nobody.

We're gonna have the same problem.

And it's a safe thing to work with the kids.

It's popular.

Everybody like it.

We're gonna work with the good guys.

We're gonna work with the kids.

But the conditions ain't gonna change.

We gotta work with the people that's impacting the conditions.

That's why we work, and what really was CBI do, we're gonna do the dirty work.

We're gonna work with the people that you don't want to work with.

Till we transform them and you want to work with them.

We're gonna let you see them and say, damn, that's you.

Man, I didn't know you could, you're not cleaned up good.

They go, yeah, I got my life together.

But we're gonna help wash them and get them together and then you know, put them out there.

That's what CBI do.

And a lot of people might say, I live in this neighborhood, I'm safe.

And know what I told somebody?

It's one thing about about communities across the country.

Ain't no damn gate around.

Downtown or what a nice restaurant, the nice hotels, you think you safe.

You in the same damn hotel with somebody at the highest risk.

So you want somebody like like Shantae and my brother Darnell, you want that group to be working with them because you're in proximity to them, whether you like it or not.

You in the grocery store with somebody at the highest risk.

Just think about it.

So you not only say, because some people think it's charity, but we're gonna work with them over there.

They shop at the same store you you like.

You don't want nobody thinking they're rational in no stove like that with you.

But they you bump into them by mistake because you're looking at your phone, because the man text you about a bill and telling you trying to convince you to move this way, and you're looking down, you bump into them, and he act a damn fool.

Yeah.

So we want to work with everybody, and we want to see a safe Port Smith for everybody.

That's just that's just human rights.

We want everybody to have the same opportunities.

Everybody.

Some people say, well, how do law enforcement get involved?

Law enforcement work alongside them with mutual respect, but CVI and law enforcement don't work together, but they have the same goal, and that's for healthy community.

What they have is what we call a professional understanding.

They don't share information, and you say, Chico, that don't make sense.

How could somebody know the same way a psychologist know about stuff that's going on in your personal life and she don't tell, or when you go see a therapist and you tell her you doing stuff and she don't tell your wife, yeah.

Or your wife, and it ain't even gotta be about you cheating and nothing like that.

You you confide in them with insecurities, things you got going on, they don't tell no damn body.

They sworn to see even a lawyer.

You ain't getting no lawyer that said, damn, you did that.

I gotta let the court know, man.

I ain't know that.

No, you be, because if you ain't transparent with your own lawyer, you going to jail.

You gotta tell them where you're at and what really happened.

If any of y'all was in here lawyers, I gotta tell you, I give you the half truth, 90% of the truth.

I ain't gonna never commit.

I'm gonna I'm gonna let you know, yeah, I was kind of over there because you're gonna say, I can't help you if you don't keep it real with me.

You know what I'm saying?

And he's gonna tell you most of the truth.

If you defended somebody, you can't say, damn, he is guilty, I gotta go tell them.

No.

You're gonna try and work with me or counselors, or think about all the professions.

So now, if you what happened, I've seen right, what happened, even in the worst situation, where individuals done gave information, individuals have given information to um law enforcement.

And what happened is the organization flatlined and that one person get locked up because now they done destroyed community trust.

So no, if an individual is gonna be transparent about what he's doing, then I'm gonna work with them.

But what I'm not gonna do is condone no BS or no criminal activity.

But if he if he's willing to share his story or what he's going through, then I'm gonna try and redirect him on to something positive.

The same way a pastor or anybody else would do.

Sometimes I feel like a damn priest and they give him confession.

And I say some some I stop them too.

That's too TMI.

You get to go on down, I don't want to know all your business, but this is what you can do, and these the services we provide.

Because my job is to get you on the right path, not to judge you or try to figure out what you got going on.

But they work in a space where they share mutual respect and they work in certain communities, so there's gonna be conversation at the top, like the director of this, the director level, and law enforcement will be having conversation about target areas.

Yeah, we see a spike over here.

Yeah, the chief might even say, yeah, well, I want y'all to put more influence in this area, because we starting to see uh an increase of activity over here.

You might want to start service in that area a little bit more.

And I see y'all doing great work over there, but y'all got that stabilized.

You know, we're gonna strategize without getting into the particulars with people on the ground, if that makes sense.

And also, we want to what?

We gotta draw in residents and residents and other stakeholders.

We want to get them involved.

Because really, they your eyes and ears ain't gonna let you know that everything that's going on.

We not ubiquitous, but people in the community, when they see, oh yeah, that's people, y'all know what they do, they support the community.

They they helping us say a lot.

We want to be involved too.

We want to do community events, we want the kids to come out, we want to do um put out pub bed, let them know that we're here to service the community, to create opportunities for the youth, all that good stuff.

Yeah, that's what we want to do.

But man, look, equity or equality, it's a difference.

Equity is servicing people to bring everybody to the same level or try, where equality is giving everybody the same.

But we want to create equity.

The most vulnerable, underserved communities, we want to lift them up so they could be as you know, healthy as the other communities.

And that's really what it's about creating healthy, vibrant community.

Here are some of the things that the here's what the ecosystem could potentially look like.

We got funding, we got government, we got community-based organizations, social services, family, and that's what we want.

But they are what working together.

And that's how we save lives.

Everybody working together.

Everybody working together.

And really like so when you see the success of their group, you can really say, I played a role.

I want you to think about a basketball team, right?

One thing I like about the NBA or even the NFL or Major League Baseball.

When they win a championship, did y'all know who who who who I'm gonna ask my brother?

Who get a ring when every when they win a championship?

Everybody.

The damn janitor get a ring, the general manager get a ring.

No, the general manager get a ring, the ball boy get a ring, everybody the um athletic director get a ring, the conditioning coach get a ring, because everybody contributed to the success of this team.

Everybody contributed in some way to the success of the team.

Some people, even the people, look, even the people that sat on the bench the whole damn season and never got in the game, get a ring.

And a bonus.

Because you contributed in some way to the success of the team.

No matter how minute it might appear your role is, and that's the same way we believe the ecosystem is.

When you win, it's because everybody contributed in some way to the success of the safety in Portsmouth.

And when we think about it like that, when something go wrong, we think about like how can we get everybody to the table and fix this as opposed to are you doing your job?

Or why is this happening?

No, we strategize together.

The Bible said that's safety in the council of the golly.

It's wisdom.

So when we all together, we wise because we got different vantage points and we multidisciplinary in nature.

This work is about saving lives, restoring dignity where it has been stripped away, building communities where safety, healing, and opportunity are not the exception, but the expectation.

And that's it.

I appreciate that.

I want to add a couple things to for you.

I we got plenty of time to open up the questions.

But I think I just want to bring a little perspective here.

So CVI, the term is Dr.

Chico mentioned, new term, he helped along with eight other my colleagues, and they were we were working with the Biden administration and we were pushing to get CVI out.

But when I come into the space 24 years ago, we didn't have a lot of points to point to about CVI.

We're 20-something years in now.

So I like it now because when I come to places and I'm explaining our inner city, you know, there's so much information out there.

I mean, like there's sites everywhere in the country.

They used to say, well, it's only Chicago.

I can name 10, 15 sites in the South right now.

I was just in Birmingham.

I'm working with the mayor of Birmingham right now and the mayor of Montgomery, working with them with their ecosystem down there.

So we just did a one-day summit.

But there's information everywhere.

There's the New Orleans.

Not only is it information you can see that CVI is working in these different respective cities, there's evaluation.

John Hopkins did an evaluation on the work.

Northwestern University did evaluation on the work.

Washington U did an evaluation on the work.

And so there's points that they say, hey, this is work, it can work with the right investment, the right team.

So these are things that I just implore you to maybe look into.

There's documentaries out there about the work.

So now it comes to life.

I I I have a short film, and they just haven't released it to anybody's Amazon or anything yet.

Um, every time for Gun Safety did it, and they it highlighted the whole CVI ecosystem, but they journally they followed me throughout the process.

And um, and so eventually, hopefully that'll go online or be uh we'll do a screening maybe here.

I know um some of the colleagues here from Portsmouth came to DC when they showed it, um, and so they had an opportunity to see, and it kind of paints out what a CVI ecosystem is.

There's numbers.

There's East New York, Brooklyn, rough area.

I know you might say, well, we're in the South, and people say, Well, that's Brooklyn, but roughness is roughness.

They went a thousand days in East New York.

I don't know if you're familiar with Brooklyn, but East New York precinct is one of the roughest precincts in New York City.

And they went a thousand days without a shooting, unheard of.

We went 360 days in the Queensbrig Housing Project.

These are Cherry Hill projects in Baltimore, a whole year without a shooting.

So there's a lot of great information out there to just so you'll know more about it.

If you weren't familiar with CVI, and sometimes people think that we used to be called a hug of thug program, or we just getting people with backgrounds, and we're out here just running our mouth.

No, we have a system right now to pivot seven five pivot for peace, 757 is in training right now.

We just left there to come here and we're gonna go back and we'll be training with them all week.

But not just that training, multiple training.

We got management training and trauma training and and communication training, and because we constantly are trying to professionalize, and that's why we created the the University of Chicago's Community Violence Interventional Leadership Academy, which Daryl graduated from.

We got management training and trauma training and communication training, and because we constantly are trying to professionalize, and that's why we created the University of Chicago's Community Violence Interventional Leadership Academy, which Darrell graduated from its sister academy is called the police leadership academy where Chief Jenkins graduated from.

I have the honor next week to present.

This is my second time doing it to the chiefs that are all in this cohort now.

This is, I think, cohort five.

And I met with Chief Jenkins this week.

And if I'm just being truly honest, I'm excited to talk to him because this is a unique situation where we're doing this in Portsmouth where a police chief is kind of involved, and normally you don't have stuff like that.

I'm I want you to know, like that is it's so well, of course.

I'm looking to blow it off the water.

I want them to see, man, in Portsmouth, look what they're doing.

Because we're in a climate now where we want to see how these things could potentially work.

You know how you can have relationship with law enforcement and at work without being a hindrance, or people say, Oh no, we can't do that.

So I'm looking at that.

I was just in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and that's a small city, and they had a great working relationship where law enforcement was involved, and everybody was doing the work.

It wasn't changing information.

They just had a chief, just like your chief, who understood that CVI is important.

We can't lock our way out the problem.

We can't criminal justice our way out the problem.

We have to somehow look at this as a health approach, because what led to situations.

It's one thing to lock somebody up because they commit a crime, but what were all the factors that led up to that?

And that's what CVI looks at it from a public health lens.

We're not saying the person should just go free that went in the school and shot some people here in Portsmouth.

But we cannot not go to find out what were the conditions.

Did they have housing?

Were they teased several many years?

It's no excuse, but it's it's an onus on the CVI site to get to the bottom of that because we want to stop it from happening a second time or a third time.

So we look at everything from that lens, a health perspective.

Um, I used to work for Care Violence, which is one of the biggest CVI organizations.

I worked for them for 16 years before I started my own consultancy and training and whatnot.

But one of the things that Dr.

Gary Sluckin, he's an epidemiologist, so he took the same practices when he was working in um in um Africa dealing with the AIDS epidemic and cholera, and we we go off of three scientific methods.

We interrupt and detect when things could happen, we change the behavior norms of the of that situation, then we work on group norms.

So, and that's why it's so important that we hire the right people, credible messengers.

That's why it's important that they maintain their credibility.

Now, and Chief is in here here.

No, I love the fact that a police chief spearheaded this and pushed this.

I'm not in love with the fact that the street intervention team is so tied to a city because there's so many barriers that come with that.

If I'm just being honest in here, we're gonna make it work because we got the support and we're gonna try to figure this out.

And this is this is not a sprint, it's a marathon.

We gotta get better and better about it.

But ideally, you know, there's a lot of barriers that come with that because some of our people that's doing the work, they got backgrounds and all those things that slow things up, and it has to be so ideally.

If in a perfect world, uh yes, this thing grows, CVI here in Portsmouth grows, it also builds off the community, and you have a community-based organization, you have a CBO that's a non-for-profit, and you start to build that organization up as kind of the houser of a CV.

That's how it is in most cities across the country.

We might be unique, we may set the standard here in Portsmouth.

But I'm telling you, 85% of every CVI site in the country, and I'm talking, I can at least name 200 plus.

They're usually uh buffer somewhere in there, and if not, they're through an urban league or they're through the YMCA or they're through some and Yonkers went through the Y or they're through some type of component.

That way it just kind of eliminates particular barriers that we might face down the line.

But we're not worried about the barriers.

We we we take the challenge on.

We're excited to work with you all.

It's is humbling.

Um, I just gotta say this because I'm a true spitter about what I mean.

I'm humbled to be here, but we're busy.

My name means everything, so I want to succeed in what I do.

So I'm not here just okay, it's another grab or anything.

Let's I I'll give it, I'll be like, no, we're good.

We don't want to do this if things are not gonna be done right.

So far, we've been on the right track, we've been networking, we met the mayor here before.

We're having this dialogue with you all, but we are very serious about seeing success.

And we've had success.

We this work, me and Dr.

Chico, we got sites in Houston.

We we, you know, and I'm not trying to name drop it, but I'm just trying to say that we're serious, we don't mess around.

CVI, you can Google my name, you can Google his name.

We do the work, we've worked in many a cities, and we know it's not a cookie-cutter approach.

We gotta adapt things to work for Portsmouth, just like we had to adapt things in New Orleans, just like when we went to Texas, everybody got a gun on them in Houston, so we had to adapt some things because everybody walking around with a gun because it's an open carry state.

And so we do adjust, we're not set to we're like, oh, this is the way it goes, you gotta do it this way.

We plan to make it work the right way in this city for you all and do our best in the process.

So I just wanted to add those little tidbits in there because those are things I was thinking about on the side.

Um, lastly, philanthropy, you saw that up there.

We're trying to get better with philanthropy.

We've had Eddie Casey Foundation, we've had the bomber group and for the Clippers, throw money into this.

Um Crown Foundation, a variety of organizations and stuff that believe in this work and are starting to say, you know what, we can put some money into this thing.

The last thing I'll say, I do this a lot of my training.

If I was to ask everybody in here, do you believe that disrespect can get people killed in the streets in different various areas of Portsmouth or any city?

Raise your hand.

If you think that disrespect can get people killed, okay, great.

We all believe that.

Now raise your hand if in your neighborhood or in your city, let me say maybe in your city, is disrespect against the law.

No.

Okay, great.

So we all agree that it can get you killed, but it is not against the law.

So Chief Jenkins and his officers, they can't go around patrolling has anybody been disrespected lately.

They can't go ask, has anybody anything happened?

Anybody got disrespected, lose money in the dice game, and and they felt bad or was talked about?

That's not their job, but that's what CVI can do.

We can do that.

Darrell and his team can do that, and that's how you stop stuff on the front end.

You start looking at what are the things that could cause a homicide, could cause somebody to be shot.

And and when it's your job to do that, you do it all the time.

You wake up, you panic just into everything, and we try to get in front of things.

So that's the thing I kind of do just to show that this is why CVI is important because we can monitor, pay attention to disrespect like no one else can, and also in the end, be somebody that can go ahead and alleviate whatever trauma or situation is coming about of that violent situation.

So just wanted to throw that out there, and um, I guess we open up for any questions if that if that's a suffice for the presentation.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

I got a thousand.

We ain't got time for a thousand, but you up right now.

Can we just go back one slide, please?

Uh okay, so just kind of taking stock of what we got.

So community-based organizations plugged into Portsmouth United.

I don't know that we have a hospital-based program.

Everybody, yeah, okay.

Uh philanthropy, uh I'm I'm intrigued by that.

I mean, we have philanthropists in the city, but we haven't engaged them on this issue.

Um we talking about uh philanthropic organizations kind of national level.

Yes.

Have you seen places where local philanthropists have been involved?

Yeah, everywhere, yeah.

You you know what it is too.

First education them because if they don't know what it is or what exists, then they ain't gonna if that but it's a lot of philanthropic organizations that are invested in public safety, and that's what we want to inform them that here's an alternative way to um the carcinho way of doing things, and that creates public safety.

Okay, and uh is the philanthropy connected into the community-based organizations.

Is that the best the best connection to make?

Yeah, but what are they giving money to do?

I mean, so the my thinking we got Portsmouth United and the community-based organizations that are right now funded through our safer community funding from the state.

And we've got the city, the government, the government organizations to provide kind of the reach back for social services, behavioral health, uh, police, uh, you know, all the stuff that the city does.

So, where do the philanthropists plug in?

Let me great question.

But I got I got you.

So, one of the things, um, who familiar with city funding or or state funding?

All of y'all, right?

Well, the the first thing I want to start is difficult because it's restricted.

It's clear cut what you can spend money on and what you can't.

It could be something as, and here's why philanthropy is so important.

We might need a van to be able to trans people at for people at the highest risk to or work or to court or whatever.

Just a I'm saying an organization van.

Under this restricted grant, I can't buy no van.

In some restricted grants, you can't even buy nobody no food.

So that's what philanthropy comes in because it allows you to get unrestricted dollars to do things that might be essential in that moment that the grant won't allow you to pay for because many times it's laid.

When you put that budget, it's it's laid out exactly where every dollar's supposed to go.

Where with philanthropy gives you some uh flexibility for unrestricted funds.

You might want to do a community event, but the grant might say you can't do a community event.

Right.

So that's what that's what a philanthropy comes in.

That's helpful.

And Marcus, you said that most places, unlike what we're doing, the buffer ends up being some organization.

Yeah, community based.

That buffer becomes the place where philanthropists send their money so that you can have the flexibility to do right.

Does Portsmouth United have the flexibility to take philanthropy to do that or not so much?

It's a city organization, right?

I'm looking over it, I'm looking over at Chief Jenkins, but I'll go ahead and respond.

So, like I'll give you an example.

So I'll give you the example.

Beasley Foundation Foundation.

Because we got you on camera, so everybody can see you.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Um Beasley Foundation wanted to support an effort of one of the community partners.

So they said we'll give Portsmouth United 50,000 to support that initiative.

So the quick answer is yes, we can receive philanthropic funds.

Okay.

Um, but we still are bound to whatever the city policies are.

So a good example would be if that said organization needed a vehicle, it wouldn't matter that it came from Beasley because it's still in a state part of an excuse me in a city budget.

Can I add to that too?

Um, which is so uh and in most cases, in some cases, the philanthropic group or where is that, whether they can receive it or they can't give to a government situation.

They whether they can receive it or not, they can't do it.

They'll say no, that's be a 513C or or you know, whatever the entity is, a private entity that's not so it goes both that's that's why I say there's there's things that operate better sometimes when it's not connected, and then there's a plus too because sometimes the sustainability might be better when we're connected to uh legitimate to a city, at least you would hope so.

Let me ask something too.

Another thing, too, they should have four-time jobs with benefits.

Ain't no damn way you should be out there risking your life every day talking to somebody that could potentially be drunk or high, they got a gun, they talking about killing somebody, and you ain't got no health insurance.

You ain't got so really that's one of the main reasons we talk about credible messages.

Yeah, I'm talking about that's why a lot of times they work with organizations because municipalities have limitations on who they can hire and restrictions.

If you got certain type of felonies, the city say you can't hire them.

Whereas if it's a nonprofit organization, they have more latter to they can hire people that are credible messengers or trusted message messengers and work with people with backgrounds.

So that's that's where that buffer comes in right there, and then they could be connected or funded by the city, and the city could still provide the oversight, but they they wouldn't be a city employee, if that makes sense.

Okay, and and you tossed out pivot for peace.

So that's uh so I think I'm pretty plugged into what's going on.

I don't know what pivot for peace is.

Okay.

So pivot for peace is our brand of our VI team, essentially.

Instead of us just calling it our violence interruption team, we're branding it pivot for peace, 757.

Which is important, which is very important.

And is that gonna be eventually become a nonprofit?

So that it could be the buffer entity that the money flowed into, or could employ the people separately from being city employees or 1099s.

Yeah, so right now one of the one of the challenges right now is that uh it was put forth through through state legislation uh during this current term to try to make it so that that was possible uh through the funding that that we actually did receive uh and it did not pass through.

So right now, as of now, it still has to uh go as a conduit through the through the city.

Uh I don't know what that will look like going forward, but uh you know, again, that doesn't stop uh additional uh resources that if the cities just decide to do something in a different manner and how they decide to to do that, but so far as any funding that comes from the state.

One of the things I would uh like you all to talk about is uh I would like for you to talk about your your metrics because again, data is it is important.

Uh there's a lot of information that we obviously are trying to uh we want to be able to tell a story at the end of the day, um, how we got here, we want to be able to to talk about uh the investment and and what was realized from that.

So if y'all could kind of talk about that.

Sure.

I I I had I spoke where we was at Mark Birmingham the other day, and they asked me it's is it's it's intriguing that they asked me the same question.

uh like you all to talk about is uh I would like for you to talk about your your metrics because again data is a is important uh there's a lot of information that we obviously are trying to uh we want to be able to tell a story at the end of the day um how we got here we want to be able to to talk about uh the investment and and what was realized from that so if y'all could kind of talk together sure I I I had I spoke where we was at Mark Birmingham the other day and they asked me this is it's it's intriguing that they asked me the same question and and the first thing I was explaining to um people that are direct service providers what the importance of uh of uh of of data and the way I explained it to him was this I said if somebody gave you some money to start a business and ask you how was the business doing and you say oh well I'm gonna pick on my sister again cat and I say oh just say you gave me a hundred thousand dollars you say Chico well how's the business doing and I say it's great you're gonna say Chico well how's the business doing oh we're doing good what did that tell you nothing and that's what that's what I tell people that's doing the work that's what but but if I begin to tell them like okay well right the store is doing great Catherine right on on Mondays and Tuesdays we get about 75 customers a day on Wednesdays and Thursdays it it it gets around to 100 to 150 and on the weekend we're doing almost 300 customers a day coming in getting coffee and donuts it crescendo's and we're we're really making more than we anticipated you're gonna walk away with a sense of when I'm gonna be able to pay you back how much money I'm making and all that type of stuff and it's the same way with CVI.

We want to capture all the touch points that we have with individuals at the highest risk we have a um we have risk reduction forms that ensure that we're working with the right people because everybody's not at the highest risk but we have a criteria that identifies the individual at the highest risk and we want to say how many individuals have joined the program how many people have we um offer other type of services how many people have we did warm handoffs with it's a social services how many people did we meet at Birdside at the hospital and you will get an idea but you say dang Chico in the last two weeks y'all met with 75 people at the highest risk so that you can be able to understand if there's a decline in this particular target area then it's a line with you addressing or working with 75 of the highest risks in that particular area and it's not no no doggone act of God real quick on the data piece.

I just don't want to unless you had another question.

No about the about the data.

So in my mind I'm picturing all the work that our CBIs are doing day to day in the streets the relationship work.

So what you're saying is that they're also at the end of the day or whenever in their day collecting and reporting 100% data so that that's what I was going to say they are so like we're in training right now and um one of the things that we are going to emphasize now you have to set a culture of collecting data.

It's not the sexyest thing you out there doing all the sometimes people think we just hired you for interruption no we need you to die um um document that so how many mediations we done we help create my one of our colleagues Von is down there now holding down the fort until we get back there but we help create a standard little data thing that they can put their data in.

He showed it to me yesterday it's gonna work out it's something they just created where you spend all the big money try to create your own database down the line great but the what he created is good enough for now to be able to how many participants you're working with how many community events have you done how much pub ed have you passed out how many um street interventions have you done how many media we have a bunch of categories but they do have to document the things that they do so that way Darryl and my sister um chantel they can have them reports that they need to say what we're doing what we've done we're not none of this is freestyle willy-nilly they have to collect that this is so important I think to painting the picture of what this work looks like and what the position is for us to communicate it to people within the community that it's it's it's extensive.

We do quantitative and quality so you could tell a story and you could you could tell how much impact you got but well well you know look listen I've I've listened to you guys and uh you know I I was involved with the initial stages of this we did the hospital intervention we went over to Suntera and met with their emergency physicians we learned about the cost of trauma the not only the physical cost but the monetary cost.

That's right.

It's very expensive.

Very expensive the emergency room is is an expensive place to do business.

So to the point look at the end of the day you can't expect what you don't inspect.

That's right that's right.

And and and you guys are doing the work you're you're you're inspecting you you know I've listened to you Dr.

Chico and Marcus I I've studied this stuff.

And I can tell you, in his example that you said, we hooked up Darrell with one of the foundations here attached to our bank, and they created a board for Darrell and his organization.

These people volunteered to do that.

And this is where you're talking about.

When you needed a van, who provided the van for you?

The debt organization?

The organization.

So to your point, they went out and and got the money from the foundation where those things that were restricted, sure.

At the end of the day, there is a cost to do business.

That's right.

That's right.

I tell people, you know, my mama used to tell me you're gonna pay now, you're gonna pay later.

But you got to decide when you're gonna pay.

You know, listening to all the things you said, I do want to play devil's advocate on one thing, and and it's always bothered me because I've sat in enough rooms with violence interrupters, guys that did had short sketchy past.

I asked them the question one time, and I get the whole credible messenger and trust.

But I shared with them, if I can't go in the community, Shannon Glover, who was raised by a single mom in the projects and all that other stuff, saw shootings and all that that stuff, I may not look like it.

Right.

But if I can't go in that community and I can't reach one of them, then we all got a problem.

You understand what I'm saying?

And I understand what you said, and I understand your background.

But if I I get the credible messenger thing, because I'm not in the community every day, that poses the challenge, right?

But if I can't reach them, if I can't talk to those kids too.

I went in a school today, an elementary school, and I bought pizzas for the class, and many of the young people in there, I never met them before, but they said that's the man.

Right.

And so the point I'm trying to make is as we build this thing out, it's not a us against them proposition.

Okay.

And to your point, it is a community proposition.

It is all of us working together in our own lanes, letting those folks do what they do, and we undergirding them to do their job.

I do agree with also what you said.

If we're not willing to pay these people a living wage and give them access to benefits and a little retirement or something, then we're missing the ball.

This work shouldn't be a sacrifice.

To your point, we go back to the value proposition, that what they're doing is valuable, and we need them to do the work, and they need to have the support and the benefits that that make.

So I agree with you 100%.

I just want to show you.

Yeah, that's I agree with that too, Mayor and one thing that I wanted to point out, and we've been having this dialogue uh all over the country.

I mean, obviously, right now, everyone is hyped up about ecosystems and holistic and everything.

I love that.

I'm with that.

Let me just say, let me know.

It takes a village, man.

We all in there.

It's the same rap.

Yeah, but but here's the piece that here's the piece that it gets lost sometimes in that in that terminology, and I'm all for it.

If you don't get CBI came about because of this.

This is a fact.

The I and CBI stands for intervention.

All these preventative groups that I love, after school programs, hospital work, they're great.

They need to be plugged in.

But if you don't get this right, then all that other stuff's not gonna matter.

You can have all the after-school programs, hospital, because this is the core, because they're the most closest to the problem that's happening right there.

The only reason I say that is because sometimes we can get a tendency in government to give everybody money and just make everybody feel happy.

Let's get 50,000 this group there.

And when you really could be doing, let's get whether it's red men or a whole other group.

So I'm not being biased.

I'm saying start with one piece of it, get it strong instead of having it so watered down because we are so in a rush to make an ecosystem, and we need everything.

These gentlemen and women, they got some women over there to class too.

Once they get their footing right, it's gonna make everything easier because now they're gonna have some data points, they're gonna show and prove that they know what they're doing, and then we can plug them in with the after school program, the survivor thing that Dr.

Chico was talking about.

That's yeah, just want to throw that out there.

Thank you.

I think there's value in your point.

It's it's violent.

Yes, sir.

For sure.

Thank you.

So year and a half ago, we stood up the crime and gun violence reduction task force with the intent that that they would fit in that government bubble to be the kind of the people representing the city government that are paying attention constantly to this problem and bringing issues to city council, to the city manager, to city departments, to kind of be the the eyes and ears of the government plugged into the rest of this ecosystem, so that when the messengers need reach back to behavioral health or the messengers need reach back to PRHA or the messengers need reach back to to something else in the city, or if the messengers need reach back to city council for resources that that you got somebody that's paying attention.

Now that was the intent.

Which leads me to ask you guys, should we abandon that because it's an extra layer?

I'm gonna say this.

She must have seen that question a mile of because she asked me what I come in May 1st, May 4th, May 4th and speak to the T to that council.

Okay.

I think I think first of all, really, like just like you, we just spent time dialoguing and discussing and supporting deepening your understanding around CVI, just to extend grace.

I think we got to do the same for them so that they at least know what it is.

They probably couldn't tell you.

But if we explain it to them the way we talk to y'all, then I think at least now we open up the opportunity for them to see how they could, you know, support it in a different way.

So like if we had because the only thing I would say right too is do you do you absolutely need them?

No.

That's my short answer.

If you install them and you want us to work with them, we will.

And we'll educate them and get them to the point so they understand the work and can do what you brought them together to do.

Because I know how tricky it is once you put something to just disband it.

So I'm saying, like, I'm willing we're willing to come out, I'm willing to come out here, educate them on them, let them ask questions and support them in any way possible.

And then you could see, like, now you know what it is, now you know what they do, and you can see if they want to see it.

And and that's 100% on point because here's what we're trying to do.

If at the end of the day we're trying to get more community engaged, yeah, right?

Repetition is the key to adult learning.

Right, yeah.

Um, they deserve, yeah, because they committed their time and volunteered to be there.

Yeah, they deserve to have the same picture.

That's right.

Because what we're trying to do at the end of the day is create advocates and ambassadors.

That's right.

Because I could be a community violence interrupter.

And you say that.

So here's the point.

If I'm in that store with your same analogy, and I see the brother acting up or getting ready to jump up.

I say, come here, man.

Can I talk to you a minute?

Can we talk about something?

Perhaps that could be the thing that stops him or her from doing something crazy.

That's right.

Yeah.

And I so ask the question for exactly the reason you point out.

We started something, and once you start something, it's hard to say, you know, we this was well intentioned.

We thought we had the right people.

We, in fact, I'm convinced we do have the right people.

It's kind of a cross-section of experience.

My concern isn't that we don't have the right people and they're not committed.

My concern is that we've been pulling them together once a month for a year and a half, they're frustrated because they're still trying to get their their footing and understand what it is that they're supposed to be doing.

And my concern is that we're taking good committed people and wasting their time coming together for a meeting when there's not clear value that they're in a position to deliver.

And so, so I guess I'm asking you guys to take a look at that.

Sure.

If in the end we got the right people, they're as committed as I believe they are, and there's value that that through education that that they can bring to to the community, then great, let's keep going.

If we conclude, yep, great people they're committed, but it's just another layer, and we really are just kind of wasting their time asking them to do something that's always gonna be ill-defined, then we gotta have the courage to say that was you know, we tried, but but it was a swing and a miss.

Yeah.

Well, I want to say um you know, just echo what he says that we we're more to interested in that.

We had this conversation, we spoke in front of one time.

It wasn't a long thing, but we look forward to having a training speaking with them.

Let us look into them.

You know, I mean, I know you hired them and you know them and stuff, but we know we let us talk to them.

We would love not only um do the training, but let us talk to them, you know, because it's nothing new underneath the sign a community's community.

So we would see let's see how committed they are, you know, and let's say because I know I understand it's not like uh they got jobs and everything, even scheduling is an issue to be able to get them, and I'm not saying it doesn't mean you're not committed because you can't make a training with us, but if we we on board with that right now, um who goes, we can do this.

I wouldn't give up on them.

Let us let us get a little time with them and see, and then if they come out of that and acting like they don't know what the hell's going on, then that's them, you know, because we we're gonna make it plain and we can help them out with all these access.

We can do the same thing us even more though.

We we probably can get a little more time out of them, other than just you know the hour and a half.

So uh we we welcome that.

You know, we're here for whatever part is needed, and we've been like that from the get-go.

Um we just knew that our our first priority, let's get Redman and them going.

Let's get that going, because that's a core piece, and then we're here for all whatever other pieces that we need to step in and train.

100% we'd be down to do that or look forward to it.

Okay.

Before we go, anybody else got questions because I don't want to stuff.

Thank you.

Um thank you both so much for providing all this information.

It was extremely helpful, and I appreciate your passion.

I really appreciate you presenting this from a social science perspective because I know I hadn't really put that level of thought into it, but really does paint the picture of what we're trying to do here, which is create a community and and that's a hard thing to do, and that's it's social science is hard to measure, it's messy, it's overlooked.

So I appreciate that that lens.

Um wanted to know a little bit more about the hospital-based programs.

Um, what it looks like, do we have any of it and how does the Navy hospital maybe fit into that given that that's now a place that civilians can go for trauma is is that something we need to communicate with the hospital or that could create a difficult layer.

Yeah.

But do we have hospitals?

Who's a level one trauma center here?

When somebody gets so so let me let me help.

Hold on, they do have a program at Centera.

Okay.

We actually took a group over there.

Okay, because one of the ladies who uh her son was actually shot, um, Saran Day is her name, and she took us over there.

We met with the whole trauma team, the trauma docs, they explained it, um, the trauma nurses.

Um I can make the connection with Sinterra to have if we want to go and visit the trauma team um and get a sense of what happens.

They do have programs over at Centera because they are a trauma-based organization.

Yeah, and I'll just say this, because I just we just got done doing a hospital training at UAB.

We got another one for St.

Louis coming up, so we train a lot of hospitals in this work, and just to paint the picture for you, ideally, ideally, a hospital program is great.

That the a city has one or wherever across the country.

But what makes them better is when they have a connectivity to a street intervention team.

So what we like to do is get the connectivity.

And we used to call it the bat phone because there's gonna be some people that come in that obviously retman and this team know about they they know that the person got shot, they might know the family already.

So it's just a matter of getting some MOUs about what that looks like to be able to call Redmonds and the team, they become hospital responders.

We don't have to work in the hospital to respond to the hospital.

That's how we started.

And then Christ Advocate and Northwestern Hospital, they saw how we were responding to the hospital, and they were like, How can we get violence directors in the hospital?

So we that's how we worked, that's how we worked it out.

This hospital thing grew across the country.

But when it's connected to a team that's on the ground and you get whatever that MOU is, and when do I call?

If it's from a respective area that we work in, because some you know, hospital servicing everybody.

But if it comes from an area where retman and um pivot for peace team is working out of, then we would love to figure out what that looks like to get that call.

Because there may be somebody coming there that at five in the morning that we didn't know about it happened, but then we can get on top of it if we have a type of protocol.

We can get there too, and we would love to help with that when that time comes, mayor.

If it's another visit, once we get them up first, though, because I say hospital's great, but let's plug them in down the line.

I would love to see us have that connectivity.

We can make that connect.

Okay, that's that's sort of what I was envisioning.

And um, that's why the Navy hospital is kind of a it's a different circumstance, obviously.

But that's unique to us.

It's gonna be a challenge, but it's an important question because we sent 750 patients to that trauma center last year.

Mm-hmm.

comes mayor if it's another visit once we get them up first though because I say hospital is great but let's plug a man down the line I would love to see us have that connectivity we can make that come okay that's that's sort of what I was envisioning and um that's why the Navy hospital is kind of a it's a different circumstance obviously but that's unique to us it's gonna be a challenge but it's an important question because we sent 750 patients right to that trauma center last year that's that's so it's you know it's it's not like uh there's not a need there and and I think if we have a conversation with uh with the hospital CO I mean they have people that do this kind of work when those kind of trauma show up in their ER just like Santerra has but what they don't have is a connection to to our uh pivot for peace folks that's right and and so kind of figuring out do we uh do we modify the the the MOU that we have between the city and the hospital so yeah so for the foresight program with the program at Santa and also for Naval they do call us for for things here and there depending on where incidents have occurred um but what's missing is we need to have MOUs in place with both programs.

It needs to be formalized and in addition to that we need to get our team trained because right now the only person that's that's certified on our team is Daryl Darryl Redman so he is certified so he can go bedside but there's a lot that goes into it so we would need to have those formal mous and the training.

And not only that when you're dealing with the hospital you're dealing with it with a federal installation so they got other parameters in which you gotta you got the HIPAA laws you gotta go not only HIPAA laws but just to get on access so you know even the issue you bring up about felonies if you got a felony conviction you may not have access to that base.

Sure so we we would have to logistically talk through that exactly and and I'm I'm fine with leading that effort we have great relationships so we'll get together on on what the next approach is with sure and then we can help with any training with that and we have a whole hospital team that'll come from various hospitals and be a part of the training here in Portsmouth if you need it.

100% but but so in closing if uh councilman Tilling did you have any questions because I know you've been quiet I know you I've been taking notes over here I know but you you know you have the floor sir if you want to ask him questions.

Okay.

So so look uh well thank you guys man um this has been a wonderful journey meeting you Dr.

Chico and you Marcus man I tell you just hearing your story gives me all the confidence in the world of what you guys are doing.

This city this team wants to make a difference in the lives of our citizens we want to save lives and we want to help people get over the humps.

We ain't making excuses for people right exactly and the bad actors the bad actors got paid pay for acting bad that's right but at the end of the day there is a sensibility here that we can do better.

Right.

And I know Daryl just had an event out at Dale's homes where we celebrated three hundred days without a shooting okay I was there so I know that's right so so the point I'm trying to say is that's progress.

Whether people understand that or not is progress we got a lot of work to do but I am grateful and I'm not speaking for my colleagues but I'm grateful that you guys are here to help us on this journey we need people like you because we want to be better.

So thank you guys looking forward to continuing to build this this relationship and and just to make a difference man that's why we're here we sign up for this stuff you know I know to your point you know a lot of people think we do this because you know we just love the the the they get beat up about it.

But at the end of the day I can I can speak for my colleagues the folks on this council we're here to do the work to make a difference in our community so uh we look forward to our continued relationship um I'll turn it back over to the manager because he may have something to say an attorney challenger he's quiet you know he's he's our lawyer but he may have something to say so gentlemen the floor is open to you have anything that you want thank you for coming thank you it was a pleasure meeting you appreciate you that was going to be my comment thank you for the information uh thank you for supporting the group um uh I think they've caught a long way since they've engaged you guys uh is is noticeable the the pivot that has been made since it since becoming part of your organization so thank you for the work that you're doing in Portsmouth I think is valuable thank you guys we appreciate you thank you so much but I concludes our meeting guys and uh if anybody wants to hang around we're gonna end this public work session at this time thank you thank you for having me too pleasure pleasure thanks again everybody um this meeting is adjourned