In 2022, the city of baltimore experienced 333 homicides and 688 nonfatal shootings, making IT the nations 5TH most violent system

This $1,455,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Congressionally Recommended Awards program (CFDA 16.753) will support Roca Inc., a non-profit community development organization, to operate a demonstration project to reduce shootings and support behavior change among high-risk youth in Baltimore, Maryland.

Over the 3-year grant period, Roca will use the funding to assess an estimated 150-200 non-fatal shooting victims annually and provide intensive services to up to 100 of them each year through an After Shooting Protocol. This protocol combines hospital-based violence intervention and long-term community-based violence prevention approaches to help participants manage trauma, make positive behavior changes, and achieve long-term reductions in criminal involvement. The project aims to serve 160-180 high-risk young people overall and will be evaluated by an independent third party.

To address this challenge, roca baltimore is seeking support to operate a demonstration project designed to utilize a data driven approach to reduce shootings and support young people as they work to create long-term, sustainable behavior change. Roca is seeking $1,455,000 over three years to support this expansion project through this request. This demonstration project will build off of rocas recent pilot project for an after shooting protocol that resulted in a reduction of 31 shootings (out of 86 participants) and a cost savings of $25,060,894 to the state of maryland and an additional cost savings of $1,299,662 to maryland taxpayers, for a total cost savings of $26,360,556. Using the learnings from the pilot project, rocas after shooting protocol expansion project will combine the best aspects of our pilot with the strengths of hospital based violence intervention programs and long-term violence intervention work in the community. Specifically, using this grant funding, roca will assess an estimated 150-200 non-fatal shooting victims each year and serve up to 100 of them intensively each year through the ASP, providing them with the critical supports and tools they need to learn to manage their own trauma in a positive way and to create and sustain long-term behavior change. This will result in 160-180 young people being served across the grant cycle. We will also work with an independent evaluator to assess the impact of this work over time.