In mid-April, ALSO welcomed a multidisciplinary team from Knoxville, Tennessee to its office in Humboldt Park for a tailored two-day session focused on working with in-risk youth* and the intersection of community and intimate partner violence, areas in which ALSO specializes.

The multidisciplinary team from Knoxville was comprised of YWCA Knoxville, Big Brother Big Sisters of East Tennessee, the Knoxville Area Urban League, 100 Black Men of Knoxville and Emerald Youth Foundation. This team is funded by the U.S Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women through a Consolidated Youth Grant focused on engaging men and boys in preventing violence against women, for which ALSO leads a team of national technical assistance and training providers.

Based on a recent community violence spike specifically in East Knoxville, this team came together to discuss how they could leverage their partnership to address community and gender-based violence concurrently and reached out to ALSO for assistance.  ALSO then collaborated with Men Can Stop Rape, a Consolidated Youth technical assistance partner, to create an agenda that emphasized the overlap of community and intimate partner violence to advance Knoxville’s work in these areas. For instance, ALSO has identified that many instances designated by law enforcement as “gang violence” are actually the result of domestic conflict that spill out into the street and result in conflicts  between rival street organizations. The agenda also stressed the importance of credible messengers whom those involved in street organizations find relatable and are therefore most equipped to share mentor in-risk youth to prevent community and intimate partner violence.

Rather than a formal training, this agenda created space for an exchange about our respective communities and opportunities to brainstorm solutions for East Knoxville. This format revealed existing assets in the East Knoxville community, such as a group of men that congregate organically at the YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center, as well as the participants of the Urban League’s entrepreneurial program, who might serve as appropriate mentors for East Knoxville’s in-risk youth because of these individuals’ experiences of having transformed their lives.

“We need to become more proactive about identifying our in-risk population, and really working with them to promote a better way to live life as they know it,” said Chris Whitehead, from Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee. “ I heard so many times that it’s not about taking gang members out of the gangs, but rather giving them opportunities such as jobs, so that they aren’t spending a lot of their time out in the streets. It will allow for them to provide for their families in a positive way. It’s important that we educate our youth on this early, while they are still young. I learned that community violence can, in most cases stem [sic] from what is called intimate partner violence, that can end in fatal death. Getting to the root cause of the issue, before an even greater issue occurs is the goal, but it’s going to take the right trusted individuals to make that intervention, ” Whitehead said.

Kathy Mack, from YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center shared “One of the biggest takeaways for me is that we have to use what we already have in place and build from there. We have credible messengers, who utilize our facility, utilizing them is a big part of the remedy for organizational violence.”

ALSO works with grantees of the Office on Violence Against Women to offer best practices and tailored, individualized assistance to support violence prevention and intervention efforts across the nation. We invite you to learn more about ALSO’s work with people in-risk and the intersection of community and intimate partner violence on Chicago’s Northwest side.

You can also view the press release and Knoxville local news coverage on the visit.
To learn more about the partnership in Knoxville, and their Gamechangers engaging men program, created through a Consolidated Youth Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, please visit the Gamechangers website and the Gamechangers Facebook page.