2022 COMBAT Funding: $77,000.00

In CCR's Own Words

Summary

This project brings trauma informed conflict resolution processes and training and restorative justice practices to children, youth and adults in four COMBAT-identified hot spots in Jackson County. This project serves approximately 600 people in schools, neighborhoods, families and courts. Conflict resolution training and processes are a needed aspect of the full-scale intervention COMBAT is creating. 

CCR participants are identified as having caused harm or having been harmed. They live, work or go to school in high crime and high violence areas. They have experienced individual, historical, societal, cultural or secondary trauma.

CCR coordinates and partners with Mattie Rhodes in the Northeast, Hickman Mills Prevention Coalition (Hope Hangout) in the Southeast, Sisters in Christ in Raytown, Community Services League in Independence and the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office for neighborhood Accountability Boards for Felony cases within Jackson County (Letters of Partnership attached).

Strong and consistent collaborative relationships with other organizations allows CCR to reach people who have suffered an inordinate amount of trauma in their lives. CCR processes avoid causing further trauma and also support resilience by teaching skills for conflict resolution and by offering participation in restorative practices. 

Additionally, CCR works with students and teachers at Northeast and Central Middle Schools and Southeast High School in the Kansas City Public School District, Raytown Success Academy, and Smith Hale Middle and Ruskin High in the Hickman Mills School District. CCR trains students in conflict resolution skills, and trains teachers, administrators and staff in Discipline That Restores to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and reduce out-of-school suspensions. 

CCR brings mediation, family group conferencing, circles of reconciliation, group facilitation, conflict resolution and anger management training to all of the hotspots for assistance with clients when harm has occurred, and for professional development for staff members. CCR intervention has been shown to reduce unresolved conflict and violence for participants engaged with our programs. The goal of the program is to provide skills and processes that will contribute to the outcome of fewer homicides and other acts of violence within the hotspots, for greater safety in neighborhoods, workplaces and families.

Needs

Nationally, the likelihood that a person will die violently is 4.4 per 100,000. In Kansas City, Missouri, for a Black male between the ages of 25 and 34, the likelihood of violent death is 550 in 100,000—higher than the mortality rate for soldiers in Afghanistan. 

Non-fatal shootings increased more than 64 percent in two years, and drive-by shootings increased 50 percent in a year. 

CCR program evaluation shows that, for some people, violence is the preferred reaction to conflict, an idea that is ingrained more fully by family members and peer pressure. 

On average, there is a murder every 3 days. Multiple or mass shootings are increasing at rates that have never been seen before. 

According to youth.gov an estimated 2.1 million youth under the age of 18 are arrested in the U.S. every year. Girls are the fastest growing population entering the justice system. African American youth have the highest rates of involvement compared to other racial groups. 

The No. 1 known cause of homicide in Kansas City is arguments. In the Kansas City Public School District, children as young as 14 are being arrested for fighting in school. A young person who is arrested once has a 76% recidivism rate within three years and an 84% chance of re-offending after 5 years. Finding other ways to address wrongdoing in youth and adults is imperative.

Conflict resolution training and processes are a needed aspect of the full-scale intervention COMBAT is creating, making a direct contribution to violence prevention efforts by successfully promoting the idea that conflicts can be resolved without violence. Since conflict can and sometimes does lead to violence, conflict resolution effectively reduces violence. Continued funding for CCR’s efforts allows us to reach at-risk participants through other organizations to enhance the wrap-around services provided to people who have challenges. 

As the services CCR provides become better known in KC, people have started self-referring to our services. Increasing the use of alternatives to violence and incarceration is a must.