Resources for Community Violence
Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham
Mission: The Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham (RCND) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that invites people of faith and goodwill to come alongside those most-affected by violence through vigil ministry among surviving loved ones of homicide victims, support circles for citizens returning from incarceration, and restorative justice practices that repair the harm caused by wrongdoing. RCND invites community members to:
VIGIL MINISTRY
VIGIL in the face of pervasive violent harm: through Annual Vigil, on the street, in court, and in compassionate relationship with families grieving irreparable violent harm. By bearing public witness to the human worthiness of neighbors killed by our neighbors, we extend support and dignity to survivors. Since 1997.
REENTRY & RECONCILIATION
R&R Ministry through community-sourced ‘faith teams’ gathered in mutual support around a neighbor exiting long-term incarceration. Since 2004.
COMMUNITY LUNCHEON ROUNDTABLES
Community Luncheon Roundtables held every fourth Thursday of the month in the education building of Elizabeth Street UMC (1209 N. Elizabeth Street) from Noon to 1PM. Lunch, presentation from a peacemaker, and lively discussion are provided. Since 1992, all are welcome.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE DURHAM
A collaborative project to integrate restorative justice practices in Durham’s criminal justice system. Working alongside volunteers, community partners, and criminal justice practitioners, we seek a restorative justice process that repairs of harm of crime and restores the relationships—both individual and collective—that were hurt by wrongdoing. Since 2018.
Criminal Justice Resource Center
Mission: The mission of the Criminal Justice Resource Center (CJRC) is to promote public safety through support for the local criminal justice system and to supervise and rehabilitate justice-involved individuals through a wide array of supportive services so that they may achieve their full potential as contributing members of their community.
There are many initiatives and resources through the CJRC. We list 13 below, some of which have multiple programs and resources within them.
Gang Reduction Strategy
The mission of the Gang Reduction Strategy (GRS) initiative and its Steering Committee is to increase the safety of Durham citizens by significantly reducing gang-related crime and violence. It includes a GRS Steering Committee, Research and Reports, and a multi-disciplinary gang-intervention initiative called Project Build.
Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
The North Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) collaborates with the Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils (JCPC) in each county to galvanize community leaders, locally and statewide, to reduce, and prevent juvenile crime.
JCPC board members are appointed by the county Board of Commissioners and meet monthly. The meetings are open to the public, and all business is considered public information.
The JCPC also funds programs that reduce and prevent juvenile crime.
Stepping Up Initiative
Durham participates in the Stepping Up Initiative to reduce the number of people in jails who are experiencing mental illness.
DURHAM Pretrial Services
Pretrial Services was established in 2006 to create a systematic approach for recommending release and community supervision for defendants who do not pose a risk to the community as they await trial.
Jail Mental Health
The Jail Mental Health Team works with inmates who are diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness, or who are on medication for severe mental illness.
Reentry Services
The Criminal Justice Resource Center provides two community based reentry programs for adult offenders: Recidivism Reduction Services (RRS), and the Reentry Program. RRS is intended to provide cognitive behavioral programming, substance use disorder services and linkages to community resources for the high risk adult offender population located in Durham County for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS). The Reentry Program is designed to facilitate the smooth return of offenders into the community after incarceration in the NC prison system. The program provides various support services through collaborative supervision without compromising public safety.
Criminal Justice Advisory Committee
The purpose of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC) is to develop a comprehensive continuum of services for the adult criminal justice system, identify services gaps, and develop intervention strategies and comprehensive solutions.
Substance Use Disorder Treatment
CJRC offers treatment to individuals currently in the Durham County Detention Center, and outpatient treatment.
Diversion Program
The CJRC offers two programs as alternatives to arrest: Misdemeanor Diversion Programs, Post-Arrest Diversion Programs. Learn more about the Diversion Program’s metrics and history here.
Specialty Courts
Specialty courts are alternatives to formal court processing and incarceration and include Adult Drug Treatment Court and the Mental Health Court Program.
Durham Local Reentry Council
A network of individuals and agencies that provide support and the coordination of services for justice involved individuals.
Spirithouse Harm-Free Zone
The Harm Free Zone (HFZ) supports a community-centered vision that helps us repair the damage of racism, and the oppression of poor people of color by providing tools and trainings to both strengthen and develop our capacity to prevent, confront and transform harm. The Harm Free Zone emphasizes independent and self directing community autonomy as a necessary step towards creating shared collective accountability strategies and practice.
Bull City Homicide
Bull City Homicide aims to track and account for every murder victim in the city of Durham, North Carolina.
Please note their disclaimer. This is how it begins: “By sharing links to media about violent deaths in Durham, we expand the awareness of the problems we are facing. However, we’re also perpetuating the focus on violence at the expense of the efforts being made to make our community safe…” read more
Community Crisis Support Fund
When DPS students, educators or families experience a tragedy such as gun violence or mental health crisis, the DPS Community Crisis Support Fund will be available to provide those who were impacted by tragedy with emergency funds for needs such as funeral expenses, medical expenses, and short-term housing and food needs.
Prescriptions for Repair
An initiative of the Duke Institute for Health Innovation, in collaboration with community stakeholders, Prescriptions for Repair seeks to understand and learn from the experiences of gun violence victims. Using a structured restorative justice framework, they will provide gun violence victims with an organized process to tell their story and have their experience heard (coherent narrative), to identify what needs to be done to make things as right as possible, and to offer prescriptions of repair to the greater community.
Bully City United
Bull City United prevents gun violence epidemics by interrupting transmission, preventing future spread, and changing the norm. The Community Intervention Program utilizes trustworthy messengers to detect conflict, interrupt violence, and neutralize abrupt tensions in effort to help shape long-term peace, while creating a nonviolent community.