Violence interrupters come to Southwest

Following a lengthy and sometime contentious contracting process, in March the Minneapolis City Council approved five new contracts for MinneapolUS Violence Interrupter Services. One of them, MAD DADS, will serve part of Southwest.
The Minneapolis affiliate of MAD DADS (Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder) has been awarded a contract of $619,394, for a one-year term through March 2026 to provide community outreach violence prevention services in and around Nicollet and Franklin Aves.
Starting this month, they will provide teams of violence interrupters and outreach workers to identify risks and mediate conflicts in specific areas based on public safety and emergency response data from the city. They will also work to change behaviors and reduce retaliation cycles through relationship building strategies that help them connect with youth and other community members.
The MAD DADS teams in Southwest will work primarily in the Loring Heights-Steven’s Square neighborhood, identified as area 5 by the city.
“I’m grateful that the data validated our community experience and will result in violence prevention service to the neighborhood,” said Ward 7 Council Member Katie Cashman.

WHAT A TEAM LOOKS LIKE
MAD DADS Minneapolis Executive Director Jordan Nelson said that staff are scheduled to work based on local patterns and that they initially will have teams working 40 hours a week Tuesday-Saturday. They will be out in the community Tuesday and Wednesday from 2-8 p.m. and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight.
The staff teams will consist of five interrupters and two outreach workers, with one site supervisor and one program manager. Nelson said all staff are interviewed and then volunteer for four days to determine if they are “a good fit for the team.” All staff complete background checks and CPR and stop the bleeding first-aid training through the Red Cross, as well as conflict resolution and de-escalation. They can be identified at work by their MAD DADS green sweatshirts, do not wear bullet proof vests, and are not allowed to carry weapons of any kind.

A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH
On April 1, people were able to learn more about MAD DADS at a League of Women Voters’ forum held at the First Unitarian Society (900 Mount Curve).
At the forum, called Public Safety Beyond an Armed Police Presence, people heard from Nelson. They also learned about the city’s public health approach to violence reduction from Commissioner of Community Safety Todd Barnette and Candace Hanson, executive director of Canopy Roots, the company that provides emergency behavioral mental health first responders for the city that are now available throughout the city 24 hours a day.
“The public health approach is not new,” said Barnette. “Many urban cities do this.”
Under the approach, crime and violence are considered a public health problem similar to disease and accidental injuries. The process includes looking at causes in order to support prevention and intervention to limit harm when prevention fails. This approach, for example, has helped reduce death and injuries from a variety of causes and relies on using data to test – and verify – potential interventions.

CURE VIOLENCE MODEL
Minneapolis is one of many cities throughout the world using the Cure Violence Model (CVM). Barnette said Minneapolis is using it to help develop “an ecosystem of services” to prevent violence from occurring, to respond when it occurs to limit its impact, and to restore and help those who are victims or engage in it to recover. The behavioral crisis response services, as well as the community violence intervention teams, are both part of that.
CVM was developed by Cure Violence Global, founded in the 1990s by Gary Slutkin, M.D., former head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Intervention Development Unit
Researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice Research and the U.S. Department of Justice have found that it has contributed to violence reductions in many cities, including in killings by 53% in Baltimore, M.D. and homicides by 34% in Indianapolis, Ind.
CVM uses interrupter workers to prevent violence by identifying and mediating potentially lethal conflicts in the community. Outreach workers help those at the highest risk to turn away from violence and get services. They also work to engage community leaders, local business owners, residents, faith leaders, and others to promote nonviolence, and to shift expectations and norms around violence for the long term.
The model relies on employing workers who share the same background and come from the same neighborhood as those who need to be reached.

VIOLENCE PREVENTION DOESN’T MEAN NO POLICE
Nelson, who has been executive director of MAD DADS since 2023, was born and raised in South Minneapolis. He engaged in criminal activity when he was younger and served eight years in prison He is pastor of Foundations Church, which he founded in May 2020.
MAD DADS is a national organization that was started in 1989. The Minneapolis chapter has been operating since 1998, and currently employs 39 people. They engage in a range of community violence intervention work including youth work, jobs, and mediation.
“Just last year alone we had 596 incidents of violence and seven on-the-spot incidents where someone was either brandishing a gun or a knife,” Nelson said.
“I know a lot of people get afraid because they think violence prevention means no police,” Nelson said. “Well they’re wrong. The reality is that the police will always be here.
“But the truth of the matter is that a lot of black and brown people aren’t always safe with the police. There have to be conversations about how communities feel safe and what safety means to them.”

CITY-WIDE EFFORT
The city also approved contracts with other organizations for violence intervention teams working in other parts of the city. On the Northside, A Mother’s Love will cover area 1 and Restoration Inc will cover area 4. In the Southside, area 7 will be covered by the Sabathani Community Center and area 8 by TOUCH Outreach.
The city estimates that each target geographic area will cost approximately $730,000 for 12 months.
Under the terms of the latest contracts, each organization is responsible for reporting using the Cure Violence Database. This includes documenting daily conflict mediations, violent incident, follow-up to previous incidents, outreach events, and other community activities.
The city will also be tracking participant and community outcomes including access to support services, job placement, educational achievement and violent crime recidivism for individuals and reduction of violent crime, homicide rate, gun violence incidents, geographic crime patterns and perception of safety at the community level.
“This work is extremely important,” said Nelson. “This work has to be invested in and if this work isn’t invested in, I don’t think we will ever fully understand what it is to be safe in community.”