Invest in Gang Members: A Counterintuitive Approach to Community Change
Credit: John Huet
A politician, an academic researcher, a seasoned social justice leader and a gang member walk into an urban neighborhood known for high incidents of violent crime. Who would you bet on to stop the violence and make the city a safer place to live?
Six years ago, a Boston-based nonprofit called Uncornered decided to put its money on the gang member – that young adult on the corner, let down over the years by social systems that failed to work for him or her and traumatized by those same violent neighborhood events. Distrustful of everyone, and ready to attack or die for his block.
In his youth, Francisco Depina was one of those kids – the “bad kid” who had been kicked out of three different schools. He sold drugs, spent time in detention and was involved with gangs. He certainly wasn't seen as a potential leader with a bright future. But then, several years ago, someone from Uncornered met Francisco and was willing to take a chance on him. He started as a drop-in participant at the organization, was soon hired into a part-time position, then rose through the ranks – as an outreach recruiter, then a peer mentor and currently serves as a director of the Uncornered organization, leading a team of Core Influencer mentors who work with young people across three cities.
While Francisco is truly a magnificent talent and a brilliant leader, he is not unusual. Nor is it the case thatthere was some heroic effort on Uncornered’s part to tap into his potential. The real path to his transformation came as a result of Uncornered’s core belief that the single largest untapped resource for urban community change is unlikely to be found in city halls or legislatures, academia or houses of worship, but rather among the ranks of the very gang members who commit much of the neighborhood’s crimes and thus are closest to being able to put an end to those activities.
Gang members make up just 1% of Boston’s youth, but this very small group has an outsized influence on the city. They are involved in 50% of the homicides and control the 5% of city corners on which 70% of Boston's violent crimes take place. And Boston is not alone in this regard. A similar calculus exists in most major urban areas.
The existence of gangs has a profoundly negative impact on those involved in the violence. Each year, hundreds of youths are killed, and thousands are shot and scarred for life. Their trauma is then spread. A 2005 study, published in Science, noted that being shot, shot at or having witnessed a shooting doubles the probability that a young person will commit a violent act within two years. The violence destroys and builds on itself.
But it’s not just those involved in the violence that are impacted – violence impacts everyone. A 2018 study found standardized test scores are 50% lower in elementary schools located within high-concentration gunshot areas, indicating that simply hearing a gunshot reduces students' ability to learn and grow.
And beyond the boundaries of any given neighborhood, gang violence takes a toll on our cities. Businesses have trouble recruiting and retaining talent in neighborhoods and cities where violence is concentrated. According to a Center for American Progress study in 2012, reducing homicide rates by just 10% would increase Boston metropolitan real estate values by $4.4 billion. A 2016 Urban Institute study showed that every 10 additional gunshots in a census tract in a given year were associated with 20 fewer jobs, one less new business opening and one more business closing within a year.
Many think the solution to pervasive gang violence is to increase policing or build better community police partnerships. Over and over again in cities dealing with violence, there are calls for massive investment in police and stronger enforcement of laws. There is evidence, however, that policing of this type does not end violence when it is used as the sole deterrent. Although it may have some immediate effect in terms of crime reduction, it fails to root out the violence because it fails to address the root causes. Nearly two-thirds of those arrested for violent crimes cycle in and out of jails or detention, ending back on the same streets they came from; more often than not they will come back more hardened than when they first entered the criminal justice system. For the small percent who are driving the majority of the violence in the city, fear of police involvement or incarceration has been shown to have little or no effect on decisions to commit violent acts in the first place.
The other approach is to invest in prevention, stopping the violence before it starts. A child with hope, expectations and options will not join a gang. The challenge with this approach is that it ultimately fails to reach many youths, most often the very ones who need the most help.
Boston is an example of a city with an incredible array of public services and schools, and nonprofit and corporately funded programs that provide a variety of supports for young people, both in and out of school, yet it still recorded 181 shootings and 41 homicides in 2022 (albeit one of the lowest urban homicide rates in the nation). No matter how great the program is, some will always struggle to make it through. Even an afterschool program with a success rate of 98% means that 2% are left out of the gains. Since violence is driven by a small group of individuals (usually between 2-4%), this alone also will never prevent the most persistent violence.
In fact, Uncornered’s work is the culmination of a decades-long journey of developing and implementing prevention programs. The organization’s roots are as a neighborhood settlement house that provided an array of services over the years. After years of operating under that kind of model, it began to focus more solely on educational efforts whose theory of change was that college going and college credentials for these young people would bring about neighborhood transformation. But after some degree of success in trying these prevention and educational programs, young people continued to fall through the cracks of all of them. This led to the conclusion that while what we do matters greatly, who we engage with matters significantly more. That the few that are failed are themselves the most important part of creating future opportunity.
The name Uncornered is meant to convey a number of things. One is that the organization is helping gang-involved individuals leave the street corners and walk into the classrooms and workplaces that they frequently have had trouble accessing. As they make this shift from the corner to the classroom, they are becoming Uncornered. The name also reflects the organization’s work to keep gang members from feeling backed into a corner with no options. Uncornered provides the scaffolding of resources that allow gang members to help themselves and those they love take advantage of new opportunities. Finally, Uncornered has a more universal meaning. Most people would not think of a gang member as a solution, but rather as a problem. In this new way, we are all Uncornered in our thinking.
Putting this into practice isn’t complicated, but it challenges the traditional approaches and calls on funders and partners to open their minds and hearts to new, sometimes controversial, sets of approaches.
Because we believe that gang members, or former gang members, are often the best individuals in a community to stop violence, we turn the tables on the traditional top-down approach to bringing about change. Core Influencers, or gang-involved individuals, have unique, tightly knit networks where they are known and respected. As such, they are often the only ones who have the credibility to get others on the corner to followthem and have the greatest potential to become positive change agents themselves. These small networks are generally outside the reach of traditional social services and have been ostracized and vilified by the majority of the community. They have a deep distrust of “outsiders” telling them what to do or not do. However, when one of their own has chosen a different path – when one of the influential members of their community picks up a book and puts down a gun – the same qualities of intelligence, persistence, and entrepreneurship they relied on to survive on the streets can be used to uplift them, their families, and their community. Core Influencers can make the changes necessary to end urban violence by leading their peers toward education and employment and away from the streets.
Core Influencers experience trauma while growing up, including drugs in the home, violence, and abuse. Once a young person is exposed to any trauma, he or she becomes more vulnerable to future physical and emotional health problems. They face myriad stress-related health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders. Overcoming trauma is the first step necessary to be able to accept peer, financial and educational support and achieve greater life success.
Uncornered sets high expectations for Core Influencers. It shows them they can achieve the goals they set for themselves, such as earning a HiSet (high school equivalency exam) credential, going to college and/or successfully completing job training programs. That belief is backed up with investment. It connects them with resources and peer mentors from similar backgrounds, such as Francisco, who have walked in their shoes and understand their struggles. Uncornered mentors have a credibility that can’t be faked. They have an encyclopedic knowledge of the neighborhood and the people in it, so they know who to recruit and how to engage them. They also understand that it takes persistence and authenticity to reach Core Influencers and build trust. They provide social and emotional support and know that gang members can and will experience trauma effects at any time. As a result, they are available to Core Influencers via phone, text, Zoom or in person any time support is needed. Their positive example makes them a bridge between where Core Influencers are and who they can become.
Core Influencers also need financial and educational support. Core Influencers receive direct cash support of $400 each week or $20,000 a year from Uncornered. This assistance takes some of the financial pressure off, while also giving them the incentive to stick with educational paths that lead to being a contributing member of the workforce. And, very importantly, it is a signal that Uncornered trusts these youth and wants to give them the space to breathe, to think about their actions and to reflect on choosing a different path, to pursue dreams they may have stopped believing were possible.
A 2020 Bain & Company assessment of Uncornered found three times fewer shootings in the areas of Boston with the highest concentration of gang members who are working with Uncornered. It also showed that nine in 10 Core Influencers who Uncornered works with in Boston have not returned to violent activity. That kind of success has attracted attention from other cities, such as Kansas City, MO, and Providence, RI, where it is starting to be used. In Kansas City, according to internal data collection methods through the organization's Zoho learning platform, 88% of Core Influencers no longer participate in activities that lead to violence and 70% have returned to an education or employment pathway.
Uncornered’s goal is to make gang violence the exception rather than the expectation. Since coming to Uncornered, Francisco has saved countless lives. His work has stopped young people from killing each other and continuing a cycle of violence that creates generations of lost young lives. His leadership has fundamentally changed the lives of young people such as Alex, who spent the first seven years of his daughter’s life in prison and is now earning a college credential and training to be a peer mentor.
What if we had the courage to unlock the potential of hundreds, if not thousands, of Core Influencers such as Francisco and Alex? Uncornered’s big bet is to do just that – put our money on the gang member being the greatest opportunity for community change. It is up to the rest of us to have the courage to invest in that bet as well.
*****
A note on the use of the term ‘gang.’ Uncornered uses this term regularly, but in a broad context. In our work, ‘gangs' is a term that refers to groups of young men and women who hang together and identify with a shared narrative. They are also often called crews or sets. These groupings range in structure, hierarchy and cohesion.
Core Influencers are both active and former gang-involved individuals. They are youth and young adults who are most closely involved in community violence and most directly impacted by it. Former gang-involved individuals have the proximity and the credibility to reach actively involved individuals and show them a different path.
About the Authors:
Uncornered Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Michelle Caldeira and Mark Culliton have formed a unique partnership to create and lead an organization that believes in and works with those closest to violence in urban communities. Together they have taken Uncornered from a small GED program with a budget of less than $100,000 in 2013 to a multi-million-dollar movement that supports hundreds of gang-involved individuals in three cities and impacts thousands of others today. His vision and her strategic direction are complements as they efficiently work together to unlock barriers and elevate conventional expectations about race and people’s place in our world. Prior to founding Uncornered, Caldeira, an immigrant from Guyana and a graduate of Binghamton University, built her career focused on raising resources for nonprofits and lifting up stories of those who have been neglected. Before partnering, Caldeira led fundraising and strategy at nonprofits in Boston and New York City. Culliton, a graduate of the University of Michigan who also has an MBA from Yale, came to the work by leading start-ups in the private and nonprofit sector and became focused on education efforts more than 20 years ago, starting charter schools in the Midwest. Michelle currently lives in London with her husband. Mark calls the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston – where Uncornered is headquartered – as home with his wife and two sons.