Violence interrupter models

Do you deliver a project or programme that uses a ‘violence interrupter’ model to support children and young people affected by violence?

Through our A trusted adult themed research round, we want to learn how helping to build trusted relationships can lead to improve outcomes for children and young people who have been or are at high-risk of being affected by violence, offending and/or exploitation.

One approach that uses trusted adults is the violence interrupter model. We define this as an approach that:

• Recruits violence interrupters because of their past positions in the community, lived experiences and / or prior history with a gang. They retain the ability to reach and talk to key active gang members. 
• Uses personal relationships to address ongoing disputes, which may prevent them from escalating into serious violence. 
• Includes activities like talking individuals and groups out of planned violent events and, talking with and/or bringing together key individuals who are involved to ‘cool down’ those conflicts. Mediation approaches could also be considered as part of violence interrupters.
• Might run for different periods of time, depending on the approach being delivered, although contextual safeguarding should be a core element of delivery regardless of the model.*

Why we’re interested

We’re interested in learning more about the potential of violent interrupter models because there are so few robust studies available about the approach. In particular, we’re keen to better understand how it’s been adopted here in England and Wales, and if we can feasibly test and evaluate the model to find out if and how it works.

So, if you deliver a violence interrupter project that aligns with our definition and you’d be happy to chat to us, please get in touch. We’d love to learn more about:

• Your violence interrupter model: How does it work? Where is it delivered? How long have you delivered the model for?
• Who delivers the programme and their roles in the community (whether paid or unpaid).
• The benefits and challenges of delivering the model.
• How you monitor the project and measure its impact.
• Whether you’d be interested in working or collaborating with other organisations delivering similar programmes, to help us evaluate and improve the evidence base for violence interrupter models.

If, after our conversation, we feel your violence interrupter model could be effectively evaluated, we may invite you to submit an application through our A trusted adults funding round or explore other evaluation options with you.

Get in touch

Please send us a short paragraph explaining your violence interrupter project and one of our team will be touch.

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*Our definition of violence interrupters has been adapted from the work of Cure Violence. As we learn more about the approach, we may change and/or widen the criteria accordingly. For more information about Cure Violence, please visit: https://cvg.org/