Project Restore Bed-Stuy (PRB) was a 12-month community-based gang violence intervention program developed on the premise that violence prevention is best achieved through addressing barriers to personal growth, including economic insecurity, disconnection from education and employment, untethered social isolation, and unhealed trauma.
PRB supported 30 young men connected to rival street crews (locally affiliated gangs) in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Police Precincts 79 and 81), who were trapped in a cycle of retaliatory gun violence. Participants were provided with the opportunity to transform their lives by increasing their personal and professional skills, addressing deep-rooted personal trauma, and developing a commitment to community safety and peaceful coexistence.
Project Restore had three core objectives:
- To reduce gang-related violence and improve community safety by de-escalating inter-gang conflict in impacted communities.
- To alter the life trajectories of participants and support their transition towards successful adulthoods (e.g. employment, education, stable housing, and community engagement).
- To reduce participant contact with the criminal justice system.
Members of the Project Restore team, including CfJ's Jason Bostic, Jarrell Daniels, Geraldine Downey, Ava Kandem, and Gabriel Feldman collaborated on an article published in the Journal of Intervention & Prevention in the Community about the success of the program to increase social connections for participants and reduce gun violence in their communities.
