Montgomery leaders outline community violence intervention plan; city staff say hiring, training under way with May target

The mayor and city officials on Feb. 4 detailed a community violence intervention program that they say will place trained outreach workers in Montgomery neighborhoods and start hiring and training immediately, with a full launch targeted for May.

The city invited Live Free representatives to brief the Montgomery City Council on the strategy, and Mayor said the Family Guidance Center has been contracted to lead the local effort. "Right now, as the mayor said, this is an approach community violence intervention which is based on a public health lens, for reducing violence in cities," said Dr. Antonio Seriel of Live Free.

The briefing matters because council members repeatedly pressed for speed and clarity on when workers would be deployed in neighborhoods with rising youth violence. "Montgomery cannot wait another 3 months. I want to know, why is it taking us so long to get them on the street where we need them?" a councilmember asked during the meeting.

Dr. Seriel and Reverend Marcus McAllister, both affiliated with Live Free and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, described recruitment and training plans. McAllister said the program will prioritize hiring people from the neighborhoods served and that training will include conflict mediation, de-escalation, trauma-informed care and data collection. "So 1 of my jobs would be to do the training and what some of the things that we train on is some conflict mediation, de escalation, engaging high risk individuals, CVI 1 0 1," McAllister said. He added the core training blocks are 40 hours of street intervention training, 40 hours of management training, and recurring booster sessions.

City staff described why the program did not already have workers on the street. Eddie Compton, speaking for city staff, said the Office for Violence Prevention experienced turnover and contract problems after October, and staff had to correct an award that had been assigned to the wrong recipient before finalizing the Family Guidance Center contract and other agreements. "When I took over, I found that the award that was actually awarded was awarded to the wrong person. So I had to fix that award first. Then I had to go in and do contracts for both Family Guidance and Crimestoppers," Compton said.

Compton said interviews have begun: "We did interviews today. We're doing them tomorrow. We're gonna set up some more interviews," and he described the program manager as a priority hire because that person will shape subsequent steps. City staff and Live Free said the program will be implemented in phases and that it is possible some outreach work could begin before a full launch. "May could be sooner," one presenter said.

Council members pressed for immediate placement of some staff rather than waiting to hire the full team; Live Free and city staff said they prefer to deploy a smaller initial team and expand. McAllister said hiring the wrong people would risk participant and staff safety and could harm the program's reputation. "The worst thing we could do is hire the wrong people. They get hurt, they mess up the program even more, and we ain't made no dent in the numbers," he said.

The presenters named partner organizations but did not provide a complete funding breakdown at the meeting. Live Free said it is partnering locally with Family Guidance Center and Baptist Health; the city said Family Guidance Center has been contracted to run the main part of the strategy and that CrimeStoppers and other partners are also involved. No formal council vote occurred on the program at the meeting; council members recorded direction and asked for a timetable and regular updates.

The city and Live Free said the program will prioritize street-based workers who can "knock doors" and build trust in high-risk neighborhoods, and will track outcomes via data collection. Officials did not provide a final count of hires, a total budget, or a firm launch date beyond the May target. City staff said they would aim to have a program manager in place as soon as possible and to put some outreach staff on the street before the full complement of hires is complete.

Council members asked for regular progress reports and asked staff to move quickly. City staff said contractual and hiring steps are underway and that initial interviews had started as of the meeting.