Safe Streets, social media, schools: MONSE faces easier budget hearing as Baltimore violence declines

A long-awaited violence intervention pilot program based in four city schools could finally get off the ground.

The group violence reduction strategy paying dividends will continue its expansion across Baltimore police districts.

And Baltimore’s flagship anti-violence program, Safe Streets, is pushing to fill vacancies and boost its mediation efforts.

The agency tasked with coordinating city strategies to reduce violence is looking to expand and solidify programming in the upcoming year, amid a different backdrop in Baltimore.

The city has seen continued declines in shootings so far this year, after ending last year with fewer than 300 homicides for the first time in the better part of a decade. As a result, agency leaders faced a happier group of City Council members at its budget hearing Monday, which featured fewer clashes than years prior.

“The fact that we just had our lowest homicide rate for any month of May since 1970 is something that we as a city should celebrate. And I don’t think enough people know that or would ascribe that to GVRS … or to any of the strategies. But I think it’s really important,” said Councilman Zeke Cohen, who recently won the Democratic primary for City Council president. “Something that you all are doing in the anti-violence fight is clearly working.”

The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, is seeking a slightly larger general fund budget of $8.5 million in the upcoming fiscal year, but a lower overall budget of $17.2 million. The drop in outside funding is reflective of a new citywide approach to budgeting for grants, city officials said.

That allocation would include the creation of two new positions to help manage the group violence reduction strategy’s expansion.

Still, there could be challenges ahead for the agency, as it and the rest of city government face spending deadlines for federal dollars doled out during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s what to know:

Safe Streets makes hires, reopens site

The Safe Streets site in Belair-Edison, which had suspended operations after a law enforcement search, has reopened in a modified capacity, officials said Monday.

The state’s illegal ammunition charge against a site staff member was dropped earlier this year, though officials have said the investigation that brought police to the site last October is likely ongoing.

As of last week, the site has a new director, according to MONSE. The site is now open on a “modified basis,” as the city agency makes sure the site director has everything they need, said MONSE Director Stefanie Mavronis.

The new director is part of a hiring push made in recent months to fill vacancies. Crystal Miller, the agency’s gun violence prevention associate director, said there are now 21 vacancies out of 77 total positions.

A September start for school-based intervention?

If all goes according to plan, four city high schools could be testing grounds for new violence intervention efforts come the start of next school year.

Digital Harbor, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical, Carver Vocational-Technical and Edmondson-Westside high schools have been tapped as pilots for the $1.5 million project, partly funded by a grant from the National League of Cities. The pilot program, which has been delayed, is expected to include student “ambassadors” and anti-violence work for conflicts brewing in and out of school.

Mavronis said Monday that her agency is working on a memorandum of understanding with the city school system and has yet to hire members of a community-based organization to staff the pilots — which sparked some concern from council members.

“September is like tomorrow,” said Councilwoman Odette Ramos.

Mavronis agreed, responding that it is a priority and “important” to “make sure we can get this across the finish line.”

Council members seek drug corner strategies

Council members at Monday’s hearing appeared largely on board with the administration’s group violence reduction strategy, which is expanding to additional police districts.

The strategy, known as focused deterrence, zeros in on the people driving violence and adopts a “carrot and stick” approach: We can connect you with services to help change your trajectory, or you could face criminal charges for your current activity.

One council member, Mark Conway, wondered whether that approach might be adopted for Baltimore’s open-air drug markets.

“What I’m noticing and concerned about is how we deal with drug dealing in the city without mass incarceration again,” Conway said. “It’s something that needs to be addressed, and I think we’re struggling with it a little bit.”

Faith Leach, the city’s chief administrative officer, signaled openness to working more closely with MONSE and other city agencies on a strategy, alongside existing work. Leach stressed that it would be important not to add to the group violence reduction strategy’s work, but agreed “there’s more that we could be doing.”

“Even outside of GVRS, we do the neighborhood stabilization work, where we provide jobs and other alternatives to the ‘lifestyle,’ if you will,” Leach said. “I do think that there’s a more formal way … where we could actually pilot and test some of our strategies to see if they’re working.”

For the group violence reduction strategy, meanwhile, Mavronis told council members they are planning for the end of the COVID-era federal money, known as the American Rescue Plan Act. She said officials weren’t waiting for the “cliff.”

Social media

One councilman, Cohen, raised the issue of social media — noting that it can have consequences for young people’s body image or self-esteem, and help to exacerbate conflicts that can spill into gun violence.

How is the city trying to disrupt the negative aspects of social media?

Mavronis said the issue comes up in many community violence intervention conversations, calling it a “real need.”

LifeBridge Health, part of the city’s community violence intervention ecosystem, is exploring a digital community violence intervention organizer position to take that work to the “digital realm,” Mavronis said. Others have raised the idea of working with social media companies to remove inflammatory posts.

Cohen encouraged the city to be proactive in solutions. In the same way, the city redefined “credible messengers” during the pandemic, when officials sought individuals to encourage community members to consider vaccination, he said, the city should consider the messengers on social media.

“I think some of it will need to be young people themselves being those credible messengers,” Cohen said. “As we know, kids listen to their peers more than they listen to adults. I’m glad you’re starting to think about this, because I think it’s something we as a city, we as a country, we’ve got to get ahead of.”