Violent crime in most American cities has generally trended down for decades, except for an uptick during the pandemic. There were 14 homicides in Providence last year, far less than the comparable number in the 1990s and 2000s. The waning of the crack epidemic is part of the explanation for why there’s less violent crime in America than in the past. Providence and some other cities have also seen the introduction of nonprofit groups that send streetworkers to promote peace, disrupt conflicts among young people, and offer a connection between the community and the police. The Nonviolence Institute was formed more than 20 years ago and it has become a vital part of the response in Providence. The founding director, Teny Gross, now leads a similar effort in Chicago. And the first woman director of the Nonviolence Institute, Lisa Pina-Warren, was appointed to that role last month. So how is Providence doing in addressing the roots of violent crime? And what would it take to make a bigger impact? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with executive director of the Nonviolence Institute Lisa Pina-Warren.
Donnis: You’ve been involved with the Nonviolence Institute since 2009. What led you to get involved?
Pina Warren: Well, I grew up in the community, where the Institute is, the south side of Providence. And that is actually where I was born and raised. Over the years, I did move to different parts of Providence, but growing up in the communities that I did, I experienced a lot of violence or I witnessed a lot of violence and then as I started to get older, I lost loved ones to violence as well.
Donnis: How many street workers does the Institute have and how does that level of staffing Influence the Institute’s ability to do its work.
Pina Warren: Currently, we’re a little under capacity. We have four full time outreach workers and two part time right now.
Donnis: When it comes to violence in and around Providence and efforts to reduce it, how would you describe how things have changed since when you started at the Institute 15 years ago?
Pina Warren: Well, one of the things that has really changed is, social media has been introduced to us, and a lot of violence occurs via social media, and it’s immediate. When we didn’t have social media, when we would hear about things, we had some time to engage in the situation and help to de-escalate, but now it’s like as soon as someone has an emotion or a feeling, they post it on social media, and that triggers a lot of violence.
Donnis: That was on my list of questions because I know that’s something that police pay attention to and these beefs among young people play out on social media. As you say, does that make it easier in the sense that, you know, you can look at social media and see what’s happening, but it also happens very quickly. So does that make it easier or more difficult for the Institute to do its work?
Pina Warren: It makes it easier in the sense that we’re able to continue to understand who’s connected to who and who has issues with who. Before you had to do a little bit more physical labor and actually in the community going to location to location and meeting with youth and having conversations. Now you open up your phone and you can see it all.
Donnis: For people who are unfamiliar with the concept of the Beloved Community and how street workers try to disrupt violence, how would you describe how the people who work for the Institute go about their work and how they try to stop violence from happening?
Pina Warren: Well, I would first like to say, the people that we hire, including myself, are people from the community that have a level of respect or what we call reach, where people know each other and it’s easier to communicate when you have relationships and there’s a level of trust. And, our first step is to gather information, and that’s what we’re always doing, is trying to gather information, knowing who’s fighting, who has an issue with someone, what sides are involved, if it’s sides or individuals, and trying to reach out and engage those participants and trying to help them make better choices.
Donnis: We’re closing in on the end of summer, and this is usually the time in American cities when violence spikes the most. How has this summer been in Providence?
Pina Warren: You know, for us with the street violence, we haven’t had, and you know, I want to say that it’s labeled gang violence is the line of work that we’re in, and it’s mostly, it’s also referred to as community violence. It’s also referred to as community violence interruption, which is more of a national language. But, as far as over the summer, when I think of the responses that we’ve had, a lot of responses were mostly one offs. They weren’t, like, gang involved. It was more individuals having disagreements and having a fight. It could be over a parking spot. It could be after the club, Not so much gang, what we would label as gang or street violence, community violence.
Donnis: Across America, shootings are the leading cause of death of young people. From your perspective and your long experience working on trying to reduce violence, what other steps do you think are necessary to make more progress on this?
Pina Warren: You know, honestly, it’s really scary, you know, from my perspective and some of the things that I see, and knowing the amount of illegal guns that are in our community, or just the ability that young people have to obtain a gun is really, really scary. And I know people say tougher laws and things like that and I do agree. but I think that for us in our community that families have to get more involved parents role models family members. If you know a young person has access to a firearm, do something about it, you know, search your children’s bedrooms, search the basement, search the attic, you know, check their backpack every day when they’re leaving to school because we know that there’s guns in schools. So if you have any inclination that someone that you care about a young person in the community has access to a gun, help them get rid of it. Do what you need to do to make sure that they don’t have access and they don’t use it.
Donnis: We’re talking with Lisa Pina Warren, Executive Director of the Nonviolence Institute in Providence. Many of us were saddened by the death over the summer of one of your predecessors, Cedric Huntley, Mr. Ced, who had been a long time involved with the Institute. I remember talking with him around the time when the Institute was starting. That was a year when Providence had about 23 homicides. And Cedric told me that if the victims were white kids from Warwick, there would have been a lot more uproar about it. If it’s hard to get that sense of urgency about poor people, people of color being mostly the victims of gun violence in Providence, what can be done to bring more urgency to that?
Pina Warren: You know, the interesting thing, and I believe you had that conversation with Cedric around 2020, so four years ago, the interesting thing that we are seeing more gun violence in Warwick and Cranston and areas that are known more to be more of, the suburbs, you know, so this is no longer impacting just black and brown communities. Gun violence is impacting all of us. In high numbers of also innocent victims. As we know, the saying is, a bullet doesn’t have a name. And and we’re talking about youth that have access to guns and not only youth, there are older people too, that they’re not trained sharp shooters. So they have access to a gun, anyone can get hit by a bullet. So it’s really impacting every community. And I hope that people realize that and I hope that everyone takes action.
Donnis: One of the challenges for a prevention based program like the Nonviolence Institute is that, you know, if you prevent a shooting, you prevent a fight, it’s hard to say, you know, point to the evidence of that. So how is it going with getting financial support for the Institute?
Pina Warren: You’re right. It is really hard to collect data on those incidents that we know we’ve played a part in or a role in having conversations. It’s really hard to capture that. And also too, I feel like there’s been times that we haven’t been really welcomed with open arms because of, one, we are a minority-based organization. We’re a black and brown organization in an inner city that hires people with “colorful pasts” is what we say. You know, people that have had, been convicted of violent felonies or have been involved in shootings and things like that. Not everyone, but some. And sometimes people don’t believe in giving people second and third chances, but we are an organization that truly believes in it.
Donnis: Does it make a difference for young people coming up in Providence that the police chief in Providence and the colonel of the state police are now people of color?
Pina Warren: I think it does make a big difference. but I also think that what helps as well is the community policing component. You know, where police are more actively involved in community events and engaging with the community and showing the human side of the role and them also knowing their community. I know when I was a kid, officers were familiar with the young people in the community and you know I’m not saying every officer was great and I’m not saying every officer was bad, but the relationships were there, and I hope that we can assist to move in that direction. We’re building that bridge and building upon those relationships.
Donnis: Lisa, you were appointed executive director of the Nonviolence Institute last month. What is your vision for the future of the organization?
Pina Warren: You know, my vision is to really just to continue to build upon the work that we have been doing now for over 20 years. Making sure that we are at full capacity so that we are able to deliver the non-violence training to all of those that are looking for that support. For there to be enough victim advocates if there are victims of violence, for there to be enough outreach workers to be at every school and to reach out to all of the youth that need the support to need a positive role model in their lives.
I know it’s a big dream, but I hope one day that we are at that level where when we get a request, we can respond in real time. You know, unfortunately they’re not enough outreach workers to respond to every single school, every time there is an incidenr. So just really building capacity and making sure that we continue to provide resources and support to the community.
Donnis: In closing, as we’ve discussed, you and the Institute deal with a lot of heavy issues. How do you decompress from all that?
Pina Warren: You know, debriefing really helps to really sit with staff and talk about, whatever the incident may be or if there’s a loss in the community. You know, the staff there, making sure that they do have access to mental health support, That looks different for everyone. It could be, I just need a mental health day and I need to go sit by the ocean. It could be, let’s have a staff retreat and have dinner together. It could be, let’s go sit on a therapist’s couch, you know, but for everyone it looks different and we just try to remain mindful and make sure that everyone is getting the support that they need.
Donnis: We’ve got to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us, Lisa Pina Warren, Executive Director of the Nonviolence Institute in Providence.
Pina Warren: Thank you so much for having me.
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The passing of the torch from Joe Biden to a new generation of Democrats includes former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo. She was one of the speakers during the Democratic National Convention and remains the source of speculation about a possible future run for higher office. While Raimondo dodges questions about seeking the presidency, she is otherwise resolutely on-message, even while surprising an interviewer with a swear word during a conversation this week. You can read more about that in my TGIF column, posting around 4 this afternoon at thepublicsradio.org/TGIF and on what used to be known as Twitter @IanDon.
That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer this week is James Baumgartner. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
