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Community Safety Fund Grantees

No One Ever Says ‘Stop Caring About Me’: How CTVIP Works to Prevent Violence Through Relationships

Leonard Jahad, the founder and executive director of Connecticut Violence Intervention and Prevention, is sitting at a desk to the far right of the image. He is wearing a grey suit and a white collared shirt. He is speaking with 4 CTVIP participants, 3 of whom sit on a couch and one of whom sits on a chair around his office.

I am the founder and executive director of Connecticut Violence Intervention and Prevention (CTVIP). CTVIP is a group of trusted and trained community members working to disrupt, prevent, and stop the spread of violence in our communities that results in trauma. This mission includes our efforts to create safer communities by changing community norms around the use of handguns to settle disputes. We do so through crisis intervention and proactive relationships, using a three-step process:

  1. Detect and prevent potential conflicts,
  2. Manage existing conflicts, and
  3. Change community and social norms. 

Before I started CTVIP, I worked in both the Connecticut Departments of Corrections and of Adult Probation. My time there showed me that reparations and preparations for re-entry into society don’t start when someone is exiting the criminal system. Instead, that work begins as soon as someone makes contact with the criminal system. We have to first build relationships with people, then teach them the skills to deal with trauma and to resolve conflicts without violence. 

I began working in this space after my sister was killed by her partner in an act of domestic violence. After her death, I went looking for her killer and spoke with him to try to get answers about what led to this violent act. That conversation with him—and many other perpetrators of violence since—showed me that most people who harm other people do so because, at one time or another, there was a relationship that went bad. Today, I charge myself and others working at CTVIP is to try to bring those people together to repair relationships before the rupture leads to violence. And if that isn’t possible, I want to give people the tools they need to begin healing. 

“Some are fully engaged in the program, and some aren’t ready, and some may push away. But I always ask them, ‘When you want me to stop caring about you, I want you to let me know.’ And no one ever says, ‘Stop caring about me.’” 

Leonard Jahad, founder and executive director of Connecticut Violence Intervention and Prevention

When I founded CTVIP in 2018, we had five staff members. Today, we have 26 paid staff members. A cornerstone of our program is reaching those at the highest risk of violence through “Violence Prevention Professionals,” or VPPs. Our VPPs have lived experiences with and understand the factors that contribute to community violence. Many of them are working to help build up the same communities they once helped destroy. Many of them were perpetrators of community violence themselves—so they know what it takes to reach the people most impacted by it. Now, they are:

  • Mentors,
  • Violence interrupters,
  • Community members, and 
  • Advocates.

These trusted messengers work individually and as a team to reach youth and young adults who are impacted by or involved with violence and the legal system in our communities. Our VPPs are trained in conflict mediation and in strategies to help facilitate positive changes in behavior. Over the years, we have evolved our programs to work with local, state, and federal authorities. We also partner with hospitals and school systems. All of these efforts help us reach those who are most impacted by—and at risk for—gun violence. 

“Every life saved or person reached through CTVIP is a success story for us.”

One story in particular that comes to mind is one of a girl with whom we started working when she was 13. She had been abandoned, abused, neglected, and traumatized. Understandably, she was depressed and would also physically lash out at others in fights and other circumstances. Today, she is a 19-year-old who works two jobs, has stopped fighting, and has started smiling. She attributes her change to her sustained relationships with the CTVIP curriculum and the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) our violence intervention professionals are trained to provide.

CTVIP serves New Haven, Connecticut, and the surrounding areas. New Haven is one of the three largest cities in Connecticut. It also has the second-highest rate of gun homicides in the state. Violence intervention programs like CTVIP provide community-informed support to people who are at greatest risk of gun violence. These programs use a variety of strategies to reduce violence through tailored interventions. At CTVIP, we draw on the Cure Violence Global method—previously called the CeaseFire method—to inform our work.

  • About Cure Violence

    Cure Violence was founded by Gary Slutkin, M.D. He is the former head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Intervention Development Unit.

    Informed by Slutkin’s public health work, Cure Violence approaches gun violence prevention like some would approach preventing a contagious disease. According to their website, Cure Violence “applies evidence-based public health epidemic-reversal strategies to:

    1. Detect and interrupt (i.e., prevent) potentially violent situations,
    2. Identify and change the thinking and behavior of the highest risk transmitters (i.e., those most likely to engage in violence), and
    3. Change group norms that support and perpetuate the use of violence.”

    Learn more about Cure Violence.

Violence is an epidemic, and at CTVIP, we treat it as a systemic issue. We work with community partners, as well as local and state politicians, to decrease violence within our communities. We have the skills to facilitate:

  • Education,
  • Employment,
  • Connection to mental health resources, and 
  • Assistance in law enforcement and/or court system involvement. 

These connections and personal experiences make CTVIP uniquely positioned to serve on the frontlines with community members. In 2024, we received a grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to further empower our work. That funding is helping to develop and expand our “MakeHisSpace” program. MakeHisSpace engages young men in violence prevention and conflict resolution. It uses the “skills of socialization” evidence-based program. That program was created by a cohort of incarcerated men, including one of our VPPs, Tyrone Whitaker. MakeHisSpace encourages participants to examine the factors that research shows may contribute to their risky behaviors down the road, including:

  • Relationship with self,
  • Connecting with others (via texting, online, or in real life),
  • Healthy living and growing up,
  • Peer pressure and bullying, 
  • The pressures of social media,
  • Gender exploration,
  • Human sex trafficking, and
  • Substance use.

Program participants then apply skills learned in these reflections through “making”—art, music, planting vegetables in our community garden, cooking, or other creations. Data shows that youth engaged in positive institutions, with sustained positive relationships with nurturing adults, have lower involvement with the criminal system. Through mentorship and learning, MakeHisSpace fulfills those best practices. The program also helps these young adults practice the pre-employment maturation skills they need to sustain a job later in life.

In 2023, we served over 100 participants across our programs and facilitated 50 mediations. We’ve had over 5,000 interactions with our participants since we started CTVIP. Those are important figures to us, but they aren’t just numbers to us. They are a tangible representation of our commitment to the youth and young adults in New Haven and the surrounding communities. 

We don’t force the people we work with to connect with us. But we want them to know—beyond any doubt—that there are people in their lives who care about them, who they can rely on, and who will always show up when they are needed. Some of our participants are fully engaged in our programs, some aren’t ready, and some may push away. But I always ask them, “When you want me to stop caring about you, I want you to let me know.” And no one ever says, “Stop caring about me.” 

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