By Abha Thakkar
Northside Planning Council
Incidents of violence in our community often leave us feeling helpless. What do we know about violence on the Northside? Who does it impact? How do we prevent the next tragedy? Since 2017, over two dozen nonprofits and city and county agencies have been coming together on the Northside to answer just those questions and have just received over $100,000 in early fundraising for the second phase of this work.
The first two years of this project, known as the Northside Safe & Thriving Community Initiative, were funded through a $750,000 federal grant awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. With these resources, partner organizations were able to pilot and assess a variety of programs targeted at reducing violence in our community. We engaged thousands of residents through direct and indirect interventions. Nonprofit, city and county staff were trained in trauma-informed care, restorative justice, mental health first aid, nonviolent communication and nonviolent crisis intervention. The funding for this first phase ended on Sept. 30, 2019.
The second phase of this work is taking shape in the form of the Northside Peace & Resilience Plan (NPRP), a 3-year plan incorporating 12 strategic areas, each at different levels of impact. We know that, among other factors, poverty, high mobility, high unemployment, childhood trauma and neglect, domestic abuse and substance abuse all contribute to the levels of violence in a community. The NPRP takes a systems approach to addressing these root causes while building skills and knowledge among youth, families, service providers and residents, with the ultimate goal of creating cultures that support peace.
The 12 strategic areas include: establishing a Northside Peace & Resilience Center; promoting trauma awareness and trauma-informed practices; teaching Nonviolent Communication and de-escalation; integrating restorative justice practices; transforming policing relationships and awareness; enhancing youth engagement, leadership and services; amplifying resident voice; enhancing service coordination and accessibility; placemaking; supporting healing and resilience; promoting food justice; and promoting environmental justice.
Each area includes specifically designed activities and programs at various levels of impact in our community, including direct intervention with systems-involved youth; targeted prevention for youth who have experienced trauma and may be at risk for experiencing violence; family support; nonprofit and school capacity-building; resident engagement and culture-shifting; and institutional change (see NPRP diagram below).
The Northside Planning Council (NPC) is acting as the convener and facilitator for this initiative, supporting the collaboration between more than two dozen partner organizations (see pull-out box below for partners) and is seeking to raise an additional $400,000 over the next three years for partner organizations involved with the NPRP.
Bridget Rogers, a Northside JFF Social Worker engaged with the NPRP, shared, “Creating a peace plan kind of flips everything on its head — we can all see what we are working towards, a culture and environment of peace, of justice. There is a reclaiming of power in this. It moves the work of peace-building into the hands of community and allows a vision of restorative justice, youth leadership and non-violence to transform how service provision happens on the Northside. It also reduces any competition for local funds — we are all working towards a collective common good. We can stop competing for small grants and altering our work to meet funding requirements and rather look to see how monies can support our comprehensive plan for peace. I am excited to see what will come of this.”
Rachel Deterding, Lakeview Community School Resource Coordinator, sees great potential for area schools, “The needs are vast and deep at our school and we continue to work diligently to meet those needs and give staff, students, and families access to the tools they need to be well in mind, body, and spirit. Being able to partner with NPC’s network of skilled providers on the Northside would mean that we could offer programs and services that are tailored to the needs of our school community as we also contribute positively to the greater northside community through proactive investments in our students’ and families’ well-being.”
She adds, “I could envision us contributing to the Peace and Resilience Plan by building our staff’s capacity as educators through training in trauma-informed practices and restorative justice practices. Other possibilities include creating opportunities for youth to learn and develop strong social-emotional skills both during the school day and after school clubs, or emotional regulation skill building with families.”
Charisse Johnson, the Family Engagement Specialist with the Northside Early Childhood Zone, has been involved with this effort since joining NPC last year. “If violence is the sickness then we have only ever been treating the symptoms. We haven’t yet addressed the root cause and therefore will continue on in this cycle. This plan is a transformative, robust and holistic approach to strengthening the community’s capacity at a systemic level.”
If you or your organization would like to get involved with this initiative, please contact NPC Executive Director Abha Thakkar at director@northsideplanningcouncil.org.
Organizations that have been involved with the Northside Peace & Resilience Plan
Northside Planning Council, City of Madison, Warner Park Community Recreation Center, Mendota Community School, Lake View Community School, Vera Court Neighborhood Center, Northport Community Learning Center, Packer Community Learning Center, East Madison Community Center, North District Police, Coach’s Club, Lakeview Branch Library, Joining Forces for Families, The River Food Pantry, Community GroundWorks, Dane Arts Mural Arts, Jerry Butler – Art and Design Works, 4-C, Peaceful Means, Safe Bodies Strong Voices, UNIDOS, Northside Early Childhood Zone, Anesis Therapy, Willy Street Co-op, Madison Starlings, Lakeview Lutheran Church, Door Creek Church, Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church, Briarpatch Youth Services, YWCA, and the Center for Community Stewardship.