Safe Streets Baltimore

Safe Streets Sandtown-Winchester and Brooklyn-Curtis Bay

Safe Streets is an evidence-based violence prevention and interruption program that works to reduce shootings and homicides in high violence areas, operated by Catholic Charities in collaboration with the Baltimore City Department of Health and the Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Safe Streets is based on the premise that violence is a disease that can be prevented using disease-control methods. Violence interrupters connect with high-risk individuals to defuse potentially violent situations, and link community youth with services, working within targeted neighborhoods with historically high levels of gun violence. By linking individuals and their families with educational opportunities, employment training and assistance, mental health services, substance abuse treatment and other crucial services, Safe Streets helps to provide young people with alternatives to a life of crime and violence.

Safe Streets employees deliver a unified message that violence is not acceptable.

Mission: To reduce violence in Baltimore City using a health approach and behavior change methods. –Adapted from Cure Violence

Vision: A safe Baltimore through the reduction and possible elimination of violence. –Adapted from Cure Violence

Who we are: Credible messengers; healthcare workers

In 2021, Safe Streets mediated 534 conflicts that would otherwise have resulted in gun violence.