For James Price, Violence Interruption is About Helping Community and Bringing Hope
James Price has not had an easy journey to 414 LIFE. Despite the hardships he has faced in his life, Price has never given up on himself or his goals. In fact, he’ll be the first in his family to obtain an associate’s degree when he completes the Education Preparedness Program at Marquette University. He, like Milwaukee, - the city in which he was born - has been viewed as an underdog. Unfortunately for him and many Black men, Milwaukee has not been a level playing field. Routinely at the bottom of rankings for health, education, and economic outcomes for Black children and families, Wisconsin has also maintained one of the largest incarceration rates for Black men in the country. Price experienced this reality when he became the first child in the state sentenced to life without parole. He served just over 27 and a half years before being released in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Price committed his life to being the role model he deserved when he was a child navigating the streets of Milwaukee and found his way to 414 LIFE. Among his friends, family, and colleagues, Price is known for his determination and dedication to helping his community. Through his work as a violence interrupter with 414 LIFE, he brings hope and help to his community every single day.
Price has worked with 414 LIFE since 2021, but violence interruption has been a part of his life for longer than that. During his time in prison, Price says that he was already doing violence interruption work, but he didn’t realize it until someone pointed it out to him.
“I was already doing this in prison, but it took someone to tell me I was already doing this before I came home,” Price said. “That’s what really drew me to this work. Checking on my community is important to me.”
What is a violence interrupter?
Violence interruption is about more than just mediating, deescalating, or interrupting conflicts before they turn violent and potentially deadly. The work hinges on building relationships and rapport with community members.
“Whenever I walk into a situation, I always ask, ‘Do I have your permission to speak?’” Price said. “This is crucial in terms of building rapport. I also ask, ‘Can I step closer to you? I don’t want you to feel like I’m shouting at you.’”
Price explains that asking questions like this, and whether they can help people with anything else, can help reassure them that violence interrupters have their best interests in mind and respect their right to choose.
“Everybody wants to feel important,” Price said. “Sometimes people just want to be listened to.”
To further underscore their dedication to relationship and community building, violence interrupters also continue checking in on people they work with even after situations may no longer be violent.
“It’s all about trust, consistency, follow ups, and accountability,” Price said. “You have to show that your word means something. If they ask you to do something, they need to know you will do everything in your power to do it.”
The work of a violence interrupter can be inherently dangerous. Violence interrupters are responding to highly volatile situations that can change at any given moment.
“Violence interrupters are more likely to be shot than police officers while working,” Price explained.
According to a 2021 landmark survey of the street outreach workforce in Chicago called the Violence Intervention Workers Study (VIeWS), single-year rates of gun violence and victimization among community violence mediators in the city exceed those of Chicago police. Trained civilians working to intervene in and de-escalate street violence face job-related violence themselves, as well as secondary trauma from that violence, survey results showed.
Violence interruption work “the right thing to do”
For Price, violence interruption is about the betterment of himself and his community. It’s also to make his mother proud.
“I do this work for the betterment of me, but a lot of this is to make my mama proud. My mother never got to see me outside of being a gang member. She never got to see this side,” Price said. “She told me I was a good kid and that I was smart, but I was in the street. She was always telling me, ‘James, you’re a good kid. Why are you being this way?’”
Price is also learning about himself along the way.
“I’m finding out I love my community. I love this work,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. You needed a helping hand, and if the shoe was on the other foot, I would want someone to help me.”
Forming caring and consistent relationships with youth important part of the work
Much of Price’s work involves violence prevention work with kids. Through working with them, he says he strives to bring a consistent figure to their lives and hope to communities.
“My main big thing is hope,” Price said. “A lot of these kids speak about going from not having hope to being able to see it. They tell you, ‘Man, we thought you was like everyone else.’”
Price says the positive feedback the 414 LIFE team receives from families and youth provides the encouragement they need to continue the work.
Many of the kids Price and the 414 LIFE team works with are dealing with an extensive trauma history. Research has well-established that trauma related to adverse childhood experiences can have a negative impact on a child’s life. Price says helping kids address trauma and learn how to manage anger would make a difference in preventing gun violence, especially among youth.
“How do you fight against this mindset of anger being dealt with through shooting? We [people living in communities experiencing violence] are literally fighting a war in our community,” Price said.
One aspect of his work that particularly sticks with him is when parents learn that they lost their child from a shooting.
“You never forget the sound of a parent crying from losing a child. It looks like the soul of a person is just gone,” Price said.
Helping community understand that violence is not normal one of biggest challenges
While violence has generally been on the decline in Milwaukee compared to COVID-19 pandemic-level highs, it remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. In Milwaukee, 2020 was preceded by a steady four year decline in homicides and non-fatal shootings that coincided with the development and launch of Milwaukee’s first comprehensive violence prevention plan known as the Blueprint for Peace.
When people live in neighborhoods and communities with high levels of violence – e.g., gun violence, sexual violence, and domestic violence – it can start to feel like an accepted and normal part of daily living. The Blueprint demonstrated that people have the power to change this norm and don’t have to make peace with violence.
Price says helping people understand that living around violence doesn’t have to be normalized is one of the biggest challenges he and the 414 LIFE team face.
“You might learn something is normal, but that doesn’t mean that’s how life really is. Getting the community to see your vision and to see that what they’re exposed to is not normal [is one of the biggest challenges],” Price said. “They’ve been plagued and hit with so much that even though we’re making steps and covering ground, they don’t have hope.”
Price says changing community mindset around violence requires a collaborative effort. Community involvement and partnership is a key part of making change, he said.
“We’re the spokesmen and spokeswomen for these communities,” Price said. “The community recognizes 414 LIFE and says, ‘I want to be about that life.’ We invite community members to walk with us and hand out resources. We want them to come out and do this with us. In fact, it’s recommended.”
Community violence intervention more than just violence interruption
Violence interruption is just one component of a larger community violence intervention (CVI) ecosystem. CVI work is about disrupting the cycle of violence in communities.
Price’s organization, 414 LIFE, is a CVI program focused on reducing conflict and retaliatory gun violence in the city of Milwaukee. They do this through violence interruption, community outreach, and providing services to survivors of gun violence and their families at several local hospitals, including Froedtert. Their public health approach to breaking the cycle of violence was inspired by Goal 1 in Milwaukee’s Blueprint for Peace.
Price says CVI work is all about community engagement and relationship building through authenticity.
“Authenticity is 4,000 times greater than love,” Price said. “You just being you is greater than even love. Love will come, but the energy of being authentic can change a room.”
Price uses his authenticity to help connect community members with the resources they need. As part of his work, he not only mediates, deescalates, and interrupts violence, but he also helps people find out what jobs might be available to them, conducts warm handoffs for needed services, works as a caseworker, and is a mentor for youth, among many other things.
“If you know anyone who was affected by violence, give them my number,” Price said. “Being able to be reachable when you’re trying to help gives a glimmer of hope that change will come.”
Price and his team make it a point to follow up with each of their participants to ensure they have what they need.
“There’s no one word to describe what 414 LIFE does because we do everything,” Price said. “We help families find food. We help families find housing. We help with crime victim compensation paperwork. We are a cohesive program working together.”
Those are just a few examples of the services the 414 LIFE team provides to the community.
414 LIFE unique model for CVI compared to other programs around the country
CVI work is not unique to Milwaukee. Other cities across the country have implemented or are implementing CVI programs to address the rise in community violence seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is unique about 414 LIFE’s CVI work is the comprehensive nature of it.
“We’re like caseworkers, first responders, we have a hospital response team, we carry a caseload of participants at highest risk of shooting or being shot, we do home visits, we arrange for safe housing and relocation, and we work with gunshot survivors and their families to support healing and prevent retaliation” Price said. “There isn’t a lane of work that we don’t do as far as CVI work.”
Ultimately, 414 LIFE strives to provide a trusted source where people can turn when they need help the most.
“We give the community a platform to voice their opinion and say how they feel without judging them or labeling them,” Price said. “When shootings or killings happen, they are able to call someone in their worst times to get the help and resources that are necessary in the moment for them to keep going.”
Price says the nature of their work has led 414 LIFE team members to develop the tight-knit relationship of a family.
“We’re like family. We may bicker, but we know how to come back to the middle and get the job done,” Price said. “I don’t feel that I would be the person I am right now if I didn’t have this team behind me.”
CVI work requires specialized training
While lived experience is an important aspect of CVI work, the 414 LIFE team is one that has received extensive training on a variety of topics related to community violence intervention. One training in particular is called the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (P.C.I.T.I.) From this training, Price says the 414 LIFE team members have learned to refine their standard operating procedures (SOP) for approaching potentially violent scenes.
“If we are about to pull up to a scene, how do we want to respond?” Price said. “You always want to go back to your SOP.”
The 414 LIFE team has also received over 60 hours of national training from Cure Violence Global focused on high-risk conflict de-escalation. Additionally, they have received training from Marcus McCallister and other highly respected violence intervention veterans from across the country.
Beyond having violence interruption training, the team is also trained in administering NARCAN and mental health first aid, along with Stop the Bleed trained.
MCW’s support of 414 LIFE helps strengthen program
414 LIFE is different from other CVI programs in that it is housed within an academic institution. In fact, MCW is the only independent medical school in the country to do so. This has allowed 414 LIFE staff positions to receive benefits like health insurance and retirement and have access to professional development opportunities.
Price says that working for MCW has allowed him to pursue his education and continue taking trainings to improve his work skills.
“MCW pushes you to be even greater than you are. They’re behind you, backing you and pushing you to reach that goal,” Price said. “I wouldn’t have had the space to go to college while holding this job [without MCW]. Who wouldn’t want to work for an organization that’s building you to be the best?”
Price also says that being associated with MCW helps provide credibility when the team is out working in the community.
“People know the brand and what it means to be a part of it,” Price said.
“When you forget what the goal is, this becomes a job.”
Through Price’s dedication to his work as a violence interrupter, he hopes to make Milwaukee a better place. Price is a changemaker helping to make a difference in community understanding of violence. He is showing people that just because they may have been the victim of violence, that experience doesn’t have to define who they are.
“When you forget what the goal is, this becomes a job,” Price said. “I don’t see myself as ever being worn out with the work.”
Price’s love and dedication to our community has brought hope that will be remembered for a lifetime.
“You’re not going to be remembered on this Earth for what you do now, but it’s when you leave,” Price said. “I want to leave something to be remembered by.”