Evaluation of the Newark Community Street Team
The work of the Newark Community Street Team (NCST) and the specific program strategies implemented by Outreach Workers, Case Managers, and High Risk Interventionists alongside the Community Sentinels Leadership Program and the Public Safety Roundtables represent a systematic and well‐established effort at community violence intervention. This effort stands independent of law enforcement but at times communicates with trusted representatives of the police and/or sheriff when there is a need for sensitive intervention within communities where violence has occurred. In the current day, community violence intervention, or CVI as it is most often known, has refined and concentrated its efforts on engaging and training community residents and those with lived experience to respond with care and intention to the threat of violence. Alongside High Risk Intervenonists, Community Outreach Workers, and Case Managers, residents have engaged in an organized effort that works to both short circuit current violence occurring in the streets of various cities as well as prevent future violence from ever taking place.
The following evaluation represents a preliminary effort at examining the impact of these two current changes: the implementation and increase in community engagement aimed at violence intervention and the inclusion of multiple data points to measure CVI effectiveness.