Finding the golden hour: New York communities unite to build safer futures

Image © KAVI

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Taisha Smith’s story is an inspiring example of how to help stop the cycles of violence that she witnessed while growing up.

“We were taught: someone hits you, you hit them back; one person fights, we all fight,” Taisha recalls in the Trauma Code podcast. “So those things stuck with me as I got older.”

By the age of 18, Taisha was serving a prison sentence. However, she believed a different path was possible, and resolved to take accountability for the harm she’d caused, build a better life, and give back to her community. Today, through her work with the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI), an organisation that encourages safer, stronger neighbourhoods by nurturing a community of support in Central Brooklyn, she supports young people in New York to do the same.

“Our youth all need someone to care about them and help guide them through life,” Taisha says. “I get to know them and their families, really understand their lives and their triggers, before I recommend resources. By allowing them to work on themselves first, you find everything else starts to fall into place.”

KAVI’s strength lies in its belief that the people closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions. Staff and mentors draw on lived experience to co-create programmes that reflect the realities and aspirations of their neighbourhoods.

KAVI was founded in 2009 by Dr Rob Gore – an emergency medic grieved by the violent injuries he was treating in youth from his own neighbourhood, and disillusioned by the existing “band-aid” response that discharged young people back into the same harmful environments.

Today, KAVI treats violence with an approach that looks first at why young people are drawn into violence. It then designs evidence-based programmes to help young people heal, recover, and develop the skills they need to create successful, meaningful futures.

Thanks to his vision, today, when a young person enters the emergency room at Kings County Hospital with a gunshot or stab wound, KAVI specialists like Taisha are right by their bedside. They offer both immediate reassurance and a dependable, consistent presence that patients can turn to throughout their recovery. KAVI’s network can connect them with a range of support, from trauma therapy to other types of care, such as help with finding a job or a home.

Taisha sees her personal story as her strength – she stands beside patients as living proof that change is within reach. “Don’t let one bad decision define who you are,” she says. “Second chances are always possible.”

That belief in second chances makes KAVI’s hospital programme highly effective. “In trauma we talk about the golden hour you have to keep people alive after a major traumatic event,” Dr Rob tells The Remedy podcast. “But there’s also a second golden hour: for intervention and prevention.”

From its origins at the sharp end of trauma response, KAVI is now working to seize those crucial “golden hours” at other moments in young people’s lives. It has grown into a deeper community of support that works in three areas: prevention, immediate hospital intervention, and wider community-building.

“We had this idea: why do we have to wait for people to become patients?” Dr Rob explains. “We strongly believe that solutions to public safety and violence come directly from the communities most impacted.”[1]

Aside from hospitals, KAVI also works with New York City’s public schools. KAVI staff from local neighbourhoods act as mentors, running programmes that help youth to prevent violence, heal from trauma, and navigate growing up. Workshops provide a safe space for them to discuss the issues they share, explore how to make better choices, and immerse themselves in an environment that encourages their passions and dreams.

Many KAVI participants go on to lead initiatives, mentor peers, and shape the future of the programme itself – proof that when young people are trusted and supported, they thrive. “KAVI helped me believe that my career is possible, no matter where I come from,” says one participant. “They introduced me to a graphic designer and even had me design their summer camp flyer to gain more experience. A peer facilitator is also helping me figure out which colleges I should apply to.”[2] Some graduates also return to become peer facilitators themselves.

In its community-building programme, KAVI works in partnership with local organisations, businesses, and leaders to provide young people with pathways to a stable future. Support is available for a range of issues connected to family, home, education, and employment, while KAVI community engagers help to strengthen their neighbourhoods through outreach work. By fostering a feeling of belonging, these programmes aim to give young people a sense of identity and purpose, so that they no longer need to look for that in gang-related activity.

Taisha sees evidence of this growing movement all around her: “When I started at KAVI, it was a two-man show. Now we have 40+ staff and more people are showing up, wanting to work with us,” she says. “A lot of youth are out there right alongside us, advocating for their own community. It’s great to see young people getting involved and wanting to change what they see happening in their neighbourhoods.”

Oak supports the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI) as part of our Special Interest Programme. Driven by the interests and passions of Oak’s Trustees, the programme provides the space and flexibility to make grants outside of Oak’s other programme strategies. You can listen to the episode of the NYC Health + Hospitals podcast featuring KAVI here, or watch the YouTube video below. You can hear Taisha’s story in the Trauma Code podcast here.
 

[1] https://www.kavibrooklyn.org/ourwork/school
[2] https://www.kavibrooklyn.org/ourwork/testimonials
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