Obama Praises Newark’s Efforts To Stop Violence By Boosting Its Youth

NEWARK, NJ — In 2014, in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, former president Barack Obama challenged every community in the nation to come up with new strategies to reduce violence – partly by helping boys and young men of color realize their full potential.

Newark was one of the cities that took up the call, he says.

On Wednesday, Obama named Newark as one of four cities nationwide to be designated as a My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Model Community. The designation comes with a welcome prize: an $800,000 grant.

The three other cities that earned recognition are Yonkers (New York), Tulsa (Oklahoma) and Omaha (Nebraska).

The My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a program of the Obama Foundation, has created a new initiative that seeks to expand the implementation of evidence-based practices and impact for communities across the country. Each selected MBK Model Community has achieved significant impact in at least one of the six MBK Milestones.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of MBK communities, cities like Newark have changed the odds – creating opportunities for our young people to achieve their full potential,” Obama said.

“The MBK Model Communities initiative represents the next phase of the MBK Alliance’s work to help communities take on their biggest challenges, and I look forward to continuing this work alongside them for years to come,” the former president added.

According to city officials, Newark was selected from a network of hundreds of cities that have an “evidence-based track record of success in positively shifting outcomes for boys and young men of color.”

Over the past few years, Newark public safety officials have been taking a new approach towards easing violence in the city. It involves treating shootings and other violence as a “public health issue,” while also continuing with more traditional police responses such as adding patrols in neighborhoods with a “high concentration of crime.”

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Nonprofits, groups and community leaders across the city have been tapped in an attempt to address the root causes of violence, reaching out to local youth and holding peace marches across Newark. Meanwhile, city-employed social workers have graduated and taken the field alongside cops, a significant addition in an area where about one in four calls that police get are for “social intervention.”

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Wednesday’s announcement came amid a spike in violence in Newark. The city has seen four multiple shootings – each with at least one fatality – over the past month. Read More: Newark Sees 4th Multiple Shooting In A Month: 4 Shot, 1 Dead

But overall, Newark public safety officials say the new approach been paying off. The city’s homicide rate is the lowest it has been in nearly six decades, with 50 homicides reported in 2022 – the smallest number since 1963. Read More: Newark Saw Less Homicides And Violent Crime In 2022, Officials Say

Mayor Baraka joined Obama onstage at an MBK Impact in Action event in Chicago to share the city’s efforts to reduce violence.

“I am incredibly proud that Newark has been named an MBK Model Community,” Baraka said. “It is invigorating and uplifting to see the spread of this holistic collaboration to treat the national epidemic of violence as a public health crisis.”

“That same spirit of collaboration has brought hope and healing to our city in the most tangible, measurable ways through the launch of the City of Newark’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery,” he continued. “Newark is eager to share our success in reducing violence with other communities, and we look forward to learning from other communities who have achieved other key milestones.”

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