Violence interrupters bringing West Charlotte together, looking to do more in 2025
In 2024, a fight broke out in the area that Donnell Gardner’s teams of violence interrupters and outreach workers oversee, off West Boulevard and Remount Road.
“We were able to interrupt that situation, get one (person) to a safe place until it calmed down and later to have those guys call a truce,” said Gardner, a program manager. “That’s very important. Without that interruption, so many things could have happened.”
Gardner’s teams — one working in the Beatties Ford Road area since 2021, and another near the West Boulevard area since 2023 — operate under Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. Young people get to participate.
The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have supported the effort, which research backs up.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice, an authority on criminal justice and violence, has found that the model YAP and Gardner use works. Most high-risk youth who get referred to a YAP program stay in their community and don’t get arrested.
“John Jay’s analysis indicates that YAP is successful at keeping referred youth in their communities, even those who experienced an arrest,” research has found.
Consistency is key
Gardner grew up in the neighborhood, is a youth football coach and knows the community well.
“I was raised in the same neighborhood. Single parent,” he said. “Back then, we could go in the neighborhood. There was this thing called love the community, love each other… Now, they’ve been kind of divided.”
Small, fun stuff makes a difference, and makes people safer, he’s found.
His teams will do something as simple as an “ugly sweater” event, where participants design the most hideous sweaters imaginable. There’s also been a basketball tournament with law enforcement, a Christmas tree lighting and trips to the bowling alley.
Other times, in a more immediate and obvious way, they save lives.
At the very same spot his team broke up a fight last year, someone was killed in May, Gardner said. They weren’t there that day.
“The guy that was murdered, he was not a participant of ours, but he was a ‘key individual,’ meaning we see him daily,” Gardner said. “We talked to him and things of that nature. That’s the difference of us being there and not being there.”
Looking to the new year
Gardner’s teams are small but busy. Seven work West Boulevard, five Beatties Ford.
They’re in local schools, and they’re determined to check in on people often, not just visit once. Consistency is key, he said.
“These communities have dealt with so much trauma,” Gardner said. “The trust factor is very low. So it’s very important for us to go into these neighborhoods and build relationships.”
And once a relationship is built, doors open to build new ones with family and friends. Then Gardner’s teams can get people help that might change — or even save — lives. In December he celebrated a young man man getting his final certification in a fiber optics class.
Next year, Gardner is looking forward to a chance for young people to share their concerns at a “teen summit” in late January, and a new reading program at Reid Park Academy.
“I do believe that we could have a lot more organizations like YAP placed in neighborhoods all around the city,” Gardner said. “If we could do that, we would definitely have a better community, a stronger community.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 6:06 AM.