Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy

In cities across the U.S. that experience high rates of violence, conflicts between young people resulting in gun violence often erupt and intensify online through social media platforms. Community and Youth Outreach (CYO), an Oakland-based nonprofit organization providing support and services to young people at the highest risk for gun violence, is proposing to further develop and test a new strategy under its Violence Reduction Coordination program. Violence Reduction Specialists will monitor social media for brewing conflicts and intervene before conflicts escalate. If successful in Oakland, CYO’s Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy can be scaled nationally and globally to improve the health and safety of individuals living in cities plagued by community violence.

In Alameda County, and in cities across the U.S., people of color and disadvantaged populations have historically been relegated to isolated and segregated communities that perpetuate cycles of hardship through limited housing, limited employment opportunities, and high rates of crime and violence.

Oakland has suffered from persistent levels of extremely high rates of violence for the past 40 years. In 2012, Oakland saw its highest number of murders since 2006, with approximately 33 murders for every 100,000 citizens. Oakland has made some progress from this recent peak in violence coinciding with the implementation of the City’s Ceasefire Strategy. In the five years since Ceasefire was implemented, murders have dropped by more than 40 percent.

This decline in homicides masks the disproportionate impact violent crimes have on communities of color in Oakland and surrounding neighborhoods. These communities are at continued risk of experiencing and perpetuating cycles of violence, which have both short-term and long-term consequences for health outcomes of current and future generations. Young people are most impacted by and vulnerable to acts of violence. Targeted interventions and services are needed to ensure that young people exposed to high rates of violence can attain better life outcomes.

CYO serves young people in Oakland at the highest risk of being involved in gun violence. An analysis conducted by the Ceasefire Strategy found that those at the highest risk are Black and Latino males, 18-35 years old, with significant justice system involvement, affiliation with active groups or gangs, and previous gun violence victimization.

CYO specializes in engaging this population, which is often incredibly hard to reach and resistant to services. Working within Oakland for nearly 10 years, CYO has established a strong connection to the community and an understanding of community needs, allowing the organization to engage hard-to-reach young people and connect them with the best services for them. CYO’s model involves maintaining close, constant contact with high-risk young people to establish strong relationships, provide support, and, ultimately, connect them to services and opportunities.

Through its Violence Reduction Coordination work, CYO has observed that often incidents of gun violence are generated or exacerbated through social media. Following a client’s victimization or arrest for a shooting, staff discover that the conflict had been brewing for several days over social media. Through the Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy, CYO will monitor social media to identify and mediate brewing conflicts to prevent violence.

Many U.S. cities with high rates of gun violence, including Chicago, Oakland, and Baltimore, report that incidents of violence begin as social media taunts. High-risk young people, many of whom are involved in gangs or groups, instigate conflicts with rivals using social media, often times with individuals they have never met in person. Following a shooting, violence intervention specialists and law enforcement view social media posts to dissect the events that led up to the shooting.

CYO is proposing to further develop and test its Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy in Oakland, with the goal of developing a strategy that can be replicated in cities across the U.S. that experience high rates of violence. For the project, CYO’s trained Violence Reduction Specialists will consistently monitor social media accounts of high-risk individuals and groups, including CYO clients they have worked with and with whom they are already connected on social media, and intervene when they see conflict arising. The intervention will include mediating conflict through social media platforms, reaching out by phone to individuals involved to calm tensions, and conducting in-person outreach to engage young people before the conflict rises to gun violence. CYO staff have reviewed the social media accounts of numerous clients after they have been victims of gun violence or arrested for a shooting and have identified indicators that a conflict had been brewing for several days over social media, as well as opportunities for successful intervention had they been aware of the conflict in advance. 

CYO staff will monitor various social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat and provide immediate intervention to prevent and deescalate conflicts. CYO will coordinate efforts among staff and work in partnership with key stakeholder community-based organizations, and will ensure that social media posts are not used to further entangle young people in the criminal justice system.

Like technology, the dynamics of community violence evolve quickly, often making traditional interventions obsolete. To be effective in reducing violence in the near-term requires maintaining a strict focus on those individuals engaged in violence and the conflicts that are likely to result in violence. In the past few years in several cities, including Oakland, shootings related to drug sales have declined, while shootings resulting from conflicts between gangs or groups have increased. According to a 2014 analysis conducted by the California Partnership for Safe Communities, drug-related disputes made up just 13 percent of Oakland homicides, while 59-84 percent of homicides involved gangs or groups.

Emerging research suggests that social media can amplify community violence. Young people involved in gangs often utilize social media to demonstrate gang affiliation and status and instigate conflicts with rivals. In response, law enforcement in many cities have begun to monitor social media to prevent violence. These practices often raise concerns around anticipatory policing of young people of color. As a community-based organization with a deep connection to Oakland neighborhoods, CYO is uniquely positioned to implement a social media strategy that can be used to prevent violence while connecting young people to services, supports, and opportunities to improve their outcomes and reduce their contact with the justice system. CYO’s innovative strategy is to use this technology to prevent violence by identifying individuals and groups in need of mediation and deploying a combination of online and in-person interventions to interrupt, resolve, and dissipate conflicts, thereby saving lives.

CYO’s Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy will utilize social media to enhance the organization’s Violence Reduction Coordination work. Trained CYO staff will monitor various social media platforms, with a specific focus on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, to identify and interrupt impending acts of violence among high-risk young people in Oakland. CYO has begun using this innovative approach with current staff with great success. CYO now needs dedicated staff members and technological support to further develop tools and expertise in identifying and successfully intervening in social media conflicts before they escalate to physical violence. 

Ultimately, CYO would like to be able to work with a technology company to develop an algorithm to recognize and flag certain words, phrases, symbols, and images to identify accounts and discussions that have the potential to lead to violence. Through this algorithm, Violence Reduction Specialists will receive alerts to review the activity and, as needed, mediate conflicts. Incorporating this technology would help to accelerate the process of locating high-risk posts and expand CYO’s reach. As a result, Violence Reduction Specialists will be able to continue to conduct street outreach to build relationships within the community, in addition to identifying opportunities to intervene in conflicts online. 

Through monitoring social media, CYO Violence Reduction Specialists will also develop a better understanding of emerging gangs and groups in Oakland neighborhoods, brewing conflicts, new trends, and hot spot areas, which will allow CYO to better support the young people it serves through its programs.

Often, violence reduction strategies do not directly connect their activities to their goals. If the goal is to reduce community gun violence in the next 12-24 months, a middle school mentoring program, while beneficial over the long-term, should not be the activity. For near-term violence reduction, organizations must target the population at the very highest risk and identify ways to authentically engage them. Two consecutive studies commissioned by the City of Oakland in 2015 and 2018 found that nearly 70 percent of gun violence victims and perpetrators shared similar characteristics: males, 18-25 years old, who have significant criminal justice history, are actively involved in gangs or groups, have been victims of gun violence, and have close associates who have recently been involved in a shooting. In addition, as outlined above, many conflicts resulting in violence are initiated or exacerbated by social media posts online.

After identifying young people at the highest risk of being involved in gun violence, CYO will utilize its credible messenger staff – individuals who share similar lived experiences as the young people we serve – to conduct authentic outreach and engage young people in services. CYO staff members have transformed their lives and have received training in intensive life coaching and outreach strategies. They develop meaningful relationships with high-risk young people, use their credibility to help young people make better decisions, and connect young people with services, supports, and opportunities to guide them on a path to success.

CYO currently serves 150 young people per year. All of CYO’s clients have had involvement in the criminal justice system and nearly all clients have been assessed as very high risk of being involved in gun violence, based on the factors outlined above.

Within one year, CYO anticipates serving 200 young people, and within five years, CYO anticipates serving 300 young people, in Oakland. CYO intends to expand its services beyond Oakland within the next five years and will serve up to 300 additional young people directly outside of Oakland for a total of 600 young people served in five years.

Through this project, CYO will also provide technical assistance and training to law enforcement, cities, and community-based organizations across the U.S. to share its intervention model. Further development of this model has the potential to impact thousands of high-risk young people across the country. 

CYO helps save lives and develop youth. On the frontlines to prevent violence and support disadvantaged young people to thrive, CYO provides outreach, mentoring, case management, and support to high-risk youth and young adults in Oakland. Through its work, CYO aims to reduce violence and improve outcomes of system-connected youth and young adults. We believe that once you establish a trusting and caring relationship, even with the very highest risk young people, you can provide them with opportunities to succeed and support them in overcoming challenges.

CYO’s goals are to significantly reduce the number of gun-related homicides and injury shootings in the communities where we work, reduce justice system involvement among the young people we serve, and improve the outcomes of high-risk youth and young adults, including supporting educational achievement, job placement and retention, stable housing, and overall health and wellness. The Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy will allow CYO to better serve its clients in Oakland and will help CYO develop a stronger model of supporting high-risk young people that can be replicated in cities across the U.S. to reduce community violence.  

Securing additional funding is a major challenge in further implementing CYO’s Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy. Currently, CYO receives the majority of its funding through public funding sources. These funding sources are highly restrictive. While current staff members utilize social media monitoring in their positions to best serve clients, CYO is in need of additional funding to hire dedicated staff members to build out and oversee a robust Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy. CYO will also need to dedicate significant staff time to identifying and training new staff members to lead this work. Most significantly, CYO is in need of technological support to develop strategies to more easily and effectively track social media activity and develop responsible approaches that protect the identity of clients and do not contribute to further criminalization of the population CYO serves.

CYO recently began working with a development consultant to support the organization in identifying and securing private funding opportunities. With additional private funding, CYO will have flexibility to pursue new program initiatives that will enhance its current services, including this strategy.

Regarding hiring and training of new staff, CYO specifically recruits program staff with direct experience of community violence and the criminal justice system, or extensive experience working within marginalized communities impacted by violence and a lack of opportunities. CYO utilizes a high level of training and supervision to ensure that staff deliver culturally competent programs and services. Staff receive detailed training in trauma-informed approaches, positive youth development, intensive life coaching, and cognitive behavioral therapy curriculum. CYO will train project staff in these areas to ensure that social media monitoring is conducted by individuals who intimately understand the traumas and challenges experienced by high-risk young people and that outreach focuses on supporting those young people.

Funding provided through the Solve initiative would be critical in connecting CYO to technological support to develop algorithms and other strategies to more easily and responsibly track social media activity. CYO will conduct outreach to researchers studying the connection between social media and community violence, and jurisdictions that have begun to track social media to learn more about technologies to support this work. The ultimate goal is to utilize these strategies in a community-based setting and to respond to escalating conflict in a positive, supportive manner to reduce violence and support young people to thrive. 

CYO currently has 16 full-time staff members and intends to grow to 18 full-time staff members in the next year. CYO will hire two Violence Reduction Specialists to lead the Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy.

Currently, all staff members focus on reducing gun violence victimization in Oakland. Fourteen staff members work directly with clients and eight staff members are currently involved in CYO's social media intervention work.

For nearly a decade, CYO has provided services to young people in Oakland who have been identified as highly at risk of being involved in violence. CYO employs Life Coaches who share similar life experiences as clients and are intimately connected to the communities where clients live. Life Coaches establish strong rapport and authentic relationships with clients; develop detailed Life Plans to address individual risks and needs; connect clients to services, supports, and opportunities; and keep clients safe, out of the justice system, and successful.

By offering an array of complimentary programs in juvenile facilities and the community, CYO provides a continuum of care that supports referrals, engagement, familiarity, and information sharing, all of which are vital to client success. CYO has built strong connections and inroads within Oakland neighborhoods and has developed strong partnerships with several agencies serving high-risk young people, including the Alameda County Probation Department, the California Division of Juvenile Justice, Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, the Oakland Ceasefire Strategy, the Oakland Police Department, and dozens of partner community-based organizations. 

CYO’s services demonstrate an impressive impact on reducing clients’ involvement in violence and the justice system, and increasing educational and employment achievement. Over 2018, CYO served 110 young adults identified by the Oakland Police Department as highly at risk for violence. While the statewide recidivism rate for this group is above 60 percent, just 10 percent of CYO clients were re-arrested. 41 clients secured new jobs, 5 enrolled in community college, and 7 earned their GED.

CYO works with a large network of community-based organizations and agencies serving high-risk young people in the areas of violence mediation, healthcare, mental health services, education, and employment training and placement. CYO focuses on connecting clients to organizations that utilize trauma-informed and asset-based approaches.

CYO refers young people experiencing unstable housing to Adobe Services. CYO partners with Oakland Unified School District and the Alameda County Office of Education to provide educational support to high-risk youth returning home from incarceration. CYO refers young people to employment opportunities with Center for Employment Opportunities, BOSS, Oakland PIC, Youth Employment Partnership, and Civicorp. CYO refers young people to ROOTS for healthcare services and substance abuse support. CYO partners with Youth Alive and Youth Uprising to support clients in reducing their risk for violence and accessing additional educational, health and wellness, and employment opportunities to support their success.

CYO will utilize its current referral pathways to identify young people to serve. CYO partners with the City of Oakland, the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County Probation Department, and the Alameda County Office of the California Division of Adult Parole Operations (DAPO) to receive referrals for services.

CYO’s model of Violence Reduction Coordination involves three steps: Identify, Locate and Engage. Violence Reduction Coordinators identify individuals at the very highest risk of being involved in gun violence, locate those individuals using their knowledge of and connection to the community, and engage them in intensive life coaching.

CYO’s model of intensive life coaching focuses on four key areas: Relationship, Influence, Decision Making, and Improved Outcomes. Life Coaches who share similar life experiences as clients establish trusting relationships with them; provide regular, meaningful contact and support; and utilize tools including motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy to influence better, safer, and healthier decisions. As clients make better decisions, they achieve improved outcomes, including educational and employment accomplishment and a reduction in violence and system-involvement.

Since many young people at high risk for violence are resistant to service delivery, CYO’s model focuses first and foremost on gaining clients’ trust through meaningful, frequent contact. Once Life Coaches have developed relationships with clients, they utilize strategies to shift negative thinking, improve decision-making, and increase motivation. Life Coaches then work with clients to develop detailed Life Plans that identify needs and assets, and guide connections to services, supports, and opportunities. To promote engagement, CYO provides clients with financial incentives for achieving milestones such as maintaining contact with their Life Coach, and consistently hold clients accountable to help them meet goals and sustain positive change.

CYO has grown significantly over the past three years, increasing from an annual budget of $750,000 in 2015 to a current annual budget of $1.7 million. As outlined above, the vast majority of CYO’s funding has come from government sources, which has been effective for CYO’s current programs as these sources provide multi-year, secure funds.Historically, CYO has been nearly entirely funded by the City of Oakland and the Oakland Unified School District. CYO continues to receive a large portion of its funding from the City of Oakland but in the past few years has significantly increased its funding from Alameda County and California state grants.

CYO recently began focusing on increasing revenue from private foundations, corporations, individuals, and earned income to be able to expand services and pilot new program initiatives, including the Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy. CYO receives funding from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation and The California Endowment and is working to continue to identify and build relationships with private funders to support the organization’s work.

CYO’s Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy provides an innovative solution to address community violence, which threatens the physical safety and well-being of the most vulnerable people residing in cities in California, across the U.S., and globally. CYO has piloted this solution in its current Violence Reduction Coordination and intensive life coaching programming to prevent escalating acts of violence and to develop stronger, more authentic relationships with the young people it serves. However, CYO is in need of funding, expertise, and technical assistance to be able to fully understand the technology of social media and to develop a model that can be safely and responsibly implemented in Oakland and replicated in other cities experiencing high rates of violence. One year of personalized support from the Solve cross-sector community will connect CYO to researchers, technology experts, and practitioners with the networks and expertise to develop this model and scale our solution. Furthermore, many funders are not willing to support promising pilot initiatives. By being selected as a Solver, CYO will receive $10,000 and access to additional prize funding, which can be utilized to grow additional support from other funders.

Because the Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy will be implemented to enhance CYO’s current Violence Reduction Coordination and supportive services, CYO will continue to partner with the organizations and referral partners listed above. CYO is also interested in partnering with researchers who have studied the use of social media by members of gangs and groups, including Desmond Patton, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Columbia University, who uses qualitative and computational data collection methods to examine the relationship between youth and gang violence and social media. CYO is also interested in learning from community-based organizations in other cities that have implemented similar approaches to prevent community violence. CYO would also like to partner with law enforcement in Alameda County and other jurisdictions, both to learn about their policies and practices in monitoring social media, and to begin to explore opportunities and models for these types of programs to be led by community-based organizations.

CYO’s Social Media Violence Intervention Strategy offers a community-based solution to reduce gun violence through the use of data and digital technology making the project an ideal fit for the Everytown for Gun Safety Prize. Through this project, CYO will be able to better support current clients and identify additional young people in need of services to have a greater impact on reducing gun violence in Oakland neighborhoods.

With $100,000 in grant funding, CYO will hire additional Violence Reduction Specialists to further develop and implement the strategy. CYO will organize meetings locally and nationally to conduct learning with researchers, law enforcement, and community-based organizations that have utilized similar approaches. CYO will engage technology experts to develop algorithms and other tools to efficiently and ethically identify accounts, monitor activity, and recognize growing conflicts. CYO will also develop policies and practices to ensure that data generated from social media activity is responsibly sourced, maintained, and tracked.

CYO will develop a detailed plan to incorporate the strategy into current programming. In this plan, CYO will include a summary of findings from meetings with experts and practitioners and a detailed outline of CYO's model including staff trainings and assessments, policies and practices for data collection, methods for responding to conflict, and measurements of impact. In addition to guiding implementation of CYO’s strategy, this plan will serve as a document that can be referenced for the implementation of similar community-based solutions to reduce gun violence in cities across the U.S.