Josh shares his expertise on community, crime, and the solutions needed to have thriving communities and opportunities for people break the cycle of poverty.
Young Voices commentator Joshua Crawford joins JT to explain how reining in violent crime helps those who need economic opportunity. Broadcast Tuesday, October 18th, 2022.
To read the full op-ed, click here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/10/…
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In the first year of implementation, group violence intervention program leaders believe they’re seeing success.
“We’re seeing the results in the community and I think the numbers speak for themselves,” group violence intervention program manager Dondre Jefferson said.
“Convey these messages of enforcement and a helping hand and they’re sort of the cornerstone of [group violence intervention]-type programs around the country and currently we are not able to get as many people into those call-in’s as we need to,” said Josh Crawford, director of criminal justice initiatives at the Center for Opportunity.
Official government unemployment numbers remain low, but the abysmal labor participation rate is a story too often ignored. Amazingly, The Washington Post notes that the prime male work rate is below 1940 numbers, the tail end of the Great Depression when unemployment was almost 15%. Only 62% of the eligible labor force is currently in the workforce.
Louisville Metro Council members are asking why so few of the people associated with groups behind the city’s deadly violence are participating in a plan to end that violence.
Group Violence Intervention (GVI) was promoted as way to reduce shootings and the deaths that follow. To work, it needs the involvement of people from groups associated with the violence to participate in “call-ins,” which are meetings with local leaders and law enforcement.
“The city’s working it hard, the office of safe and healthy neighborhoods is working it hard, the police department’s working it hard, local P&P (probation and parole) is working it hard,” Josh Crawford, Criminal Justice Initiatives Director for the George Center for Opportunity said. “But without that mechanism to actually make sure the people are there, you can work it as hard as you want and you’re not going to get the results you want without that mechanism.” A representative of Department of Probation and Parole was present at a special metro council meeting Thursday. But Deputy Commissioner Lisa Lamb, who was scheduled to attend, cancelled. The Metro Council committee chairman Mark Fox called the absence, ‘disappointing.’”
