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ONEs office expands violence‑intervention team, reports 90% non‑recidivism among participants
Summary
The city’s Office of Neighborhood Engagement (ONEs) described expanded summer youth programming, a pilot hiring program for high‑risk youth and a violence‑intervention effort that the office says prevented re‑engagement for roughly 90% of participants who accepted services.
Chief Taffney Young, director (interim) of the city's ONEs office, presented the office’s 2024 outreach and violence‑reduction work and described an expanded staff and strategy for 2025.
"Our mission is to improve neighborhood safety through the reduction of gun and other violence among Savannah youth," Taffney Young said as she introduced the ONEs team and new staff additions.
Young said the ONEs team completed 104 neighborhood, school and community meetings and events in 2024, reaching about 1,947 attendees, and that the city’s 100‑Days‑of‑Summer programming reached more than 9,000 youth in 2024 (a roughly 40% increase in pool attendance compared with two years earlier). The office employed 129 youth in summer work programs and expanded neighborhood improvement teams.
The office piloted a Path Forward employment program that hired high‑risk youth and tracked outcomes through the year. Young said the pilot has had mixed results: most participants remained engaged positively, one participant was arrested, and others reengaged in nonviolent incidents, but many achieved stable employment and credentials (one 17‑year‑old received a TWIC card, purchased a vehicle and prepared to graduate high school).
On violence interruption, Young reported 58 incidents in which the ONEs team intervened; the office reached out to 115 referrals, of which 78 (about 68%) accepted services. "After a year of effort, 90% of those who continue to work with the department have not reengaged in any violence," Young said. She also said eight individuals (about 10% of those engaged) reengaged in some level of violence; the office said it continues to track cases.
Young introduced Jimmy Johnson, the office’s new director with experience in Memphis violence intervention, and said the ONEs office will expand headcount from seven to ten positions with recently approved budgeted hires. The office plans to create a public dashboard to report caseloads and outcomes, start neighborhood intervention working groups in the top 10 neighborhoods for gun violence and pilot arts‑based programming for youth.
Council members and the mayor praised the ONEs work and asked for continued outreach. Mayor Johnson and several aldermen noted that public‑safety results reflect a citywide approach, including police and fire partnerships, and encouraged the office to continue community engagement and data transparency.
Ending: The ONEs office said it will scale staff, continue Path Forward employment pilots, launch a public dashboard and expand targeted street‑level intervention in the neighborhoods with the highest rates of gun violence.
