Safer neighborhoods, built together.
reNOUNce deNOUNce works block by block across Cleveland to interrupt violence, connect residents to help, and lift up the people and places that keep communities strong. Find your neighborhood, reach your representatives, get support, and see what's happening near you.
📸 Our Community
moments from the work · tap any photo to open it💛 Our Funders & Supporters
this work is carried by many handsreNOUNce deNOUNce exists because partners across the city and county believe neighborhoods can be made safer — and back that belief. Thank you.
🆘 Get Help Now
for victims of crime, families, and anyone in crisisIf you or someone you love has been affected by violence, you are not alone. Start here — these lines are free and confidential.
Support for crime victims & families
🏠 Housing & food help
📋 Know your rights
ℹ️ About reNOUNce deNOUNce
what we do, and why it worksWe work in every neighborhood on the East Side and West Side, serving ages 11–25 directly — and their families and communities across Cleveland. Violence in Cleveland is not random, and it is not spread evenly. It runs through a small number of people, a small number of blocks, and a small number of unresolved arguments. That is what makes it possible to stop — and the people best placed to stop it already live here.
🛑 Interrupt violence on the street
Our interrupters now work every neighborhood on the East Side and the West Side. They work assigned routes, know the people most likely to be involved, and step into disputes before they become shootings. After an incident we move straight to the risk of retaliation — the second shooting is the one most easily prevented.
🚸 Safe Passages — East & West Side
We are outside at dismissal on both sides of the city, and we do not stop at the school door. We ride down to Tower City with the students and stay with the flow. Dismissal is one of the most dangerous hours of a young person's day, and the danger boards the train with them.
📘 The ten-week program
A structured course for young people leaving group involvement — conflict resolution, thinking skills, identity, and work readiness. A way out that does not require leaving the neighborhood.
🎓 Jobs, college & trade school
Through a U.S. Department of Education grant we move 16-to-25-year-olds into work, college, trade school, or a GED. Each person gets a real stipend, a computer, and their own case manager. It answers the question every interrupter gets asked: if I stop, then what?
⚖️ Court referrals — the VIP program
Courts send young people to us directly, and they send the hardest cases. When the system has run out of options for someone, we are often the option. We also take referrals from any agency, organization, or neighbor.
🎨 TYWIST — for young women
Violence intervention was built around young men, and the young women in the same households have been left out. TYWIST serves young women in the same age range, and works through the arts.
👪 Families & alumni
When someone finishes the program the relationship does not end. We keep working with young adults and with their families, because the household decides whether a change holds.
🏙️ Downtown Improvement Program (DIP)
A standing presence downtown so trouble is met before it becomes violence — on ordinary days and on the biggest ones.
🎉 Special events & game days
Opening day for Cleveland's baseball and basketball teams, St. Patrick's Day, and the other days the whole city comes downtown — our team is out in it, keeping the peace.
🚨 Crisis response after gunfire
When shots are fired, our interrupters go to the scene — to de-escalate, support the people affected, and stop the next shooting before it starts.
🏥 Hospital response for gunshot victims
We meet gunshot victims and their families at the hospital, when the risk of retaliation is highest and the opening for change is real.
📈 Predictive analytics & conflict mapping
We map conflicts and forecast where violence is most likely, so interrupters are in the right place before something happens — the same intelligence behind this site.
📱 Digital violence interruption
Much of today's conflict starts online. Our digital interrupter watches the call-outs and grief posts where beefs begin, and gets that to the street team in time to matter.
🤝 Out in the community
Community meetings, cookouts, vigils and resource fairs across the neighborhoods — known faces, there before anything goes wrong.
🩺 Trained and credentialed
Our team is training toward Community Health Worker certification. This work sits between public safety and public health, and our people should carry a credential that says so.
People from here, not hired into here
Our violence interrupters are from these neighborhoods. Many have lived the exact experience the work addresses. That history is the qualification — it cannot be bought or handed over. When one of our people walks up to a conflict, everyone already knows who they are and what they have survived. That is why the conversation happens at all.
A fresh read of the city every morning
Most street outreach goes out on instinct and yesterday's news. Ours refreshes at 6:05 every morning — police incident data, the weather forecast, and census data are pulled in and the deployment picture is rebuilt before the shift starts. Alongside it our interrupters keep a live map of which disputes are heating up and which are cooling. No camera or patrol car produces that.
Violence travels through people
It moves through networks of people who know each other, over arguments with a history. You cannot patrol your way inside a grudge — but you can talk your way there, if the person talking has standing.
Retaliation is the engine
Much serious violence is an answer to earlier violence. Interrupting that cycle is the highest-value thing anyone can do, and the window is hours — not weeks.
Interruption alone is not enough
Asking someone to walk away from the only income they can reach is a request, not a plan. The stipend, the laptop, the case manager and the trade-school seat are what turn it into a plan.
👋 Meet Our Violence Interrupters
the people you will actually see on the blockThese are the people doing the work — outside at dismissal, on the corners, on the phone at two in the morning. If you see them out, say hello. If you need them, they are reachable.
What a violence interrupter actually does
Works an assigned route every week, so the same faces are on the same blocks. Knows the people most likely to be pulled into violence, and keeps those relationships warm before anything happens. Steps into an argument while it is still an argument.
When something does happen
Moves straight to the risk of retaliation — the second shooting is the one most easily prevented, and the window is hours, not weeks. Sits with the family. Talks with the people most likely to answer it. Follows up the same night.
And the rest of the week
Safe Passages at dismissal and on the train downtown. Carries a caseload of young people. Shows up at cookouts, vigils, resource fairs and back-to-school drives — because being known in ordinary moments is what makes the 2am call possible.
Training & qualifications
RDGIP developed and published an open field standard for this profession — 12 domains, 63 modules, 182 pre-service hours and 480 supervised apprenticeship hours, released under an open license so the whole field can use it. Every one of the Ten Commandments of Violence Interruption carries its own full training process, and the team runs quarterly practice call-outs.
🎓 The Community Safety Academy
Our training platform — the coursework behind the field standard our interrupters are certified against: 12 domains, 63 modules, 182 pre-service hours and 480 supervised apprenticeship hours. It is being prepared for people outside RDGIP to use.
Coming soon → A public link will appear here once the Academy is live.🏛️ Meet Our Board
governance and oversightThe board that holds RDGIP accountable — for the money, the mission, and the safety of the people who do this work.
🎤 Meet the Founder
where this program came from
LaRon Douglas grew up moving between Chicago and East Cleveland, and rose to a high-ranking position in one of Chicago's most established gangs. He survived being shot by rival members. He spent 22 years in prison.
reNOUNce deNOUNce was built inside, during that sentence — worked out on paper long before there was an office, a van, or a single staff member. He came home and built it for real.
That history is not a footnote to the work; it is the qualification. When someone from this program walks up to a conflict, the people in it already know who he is and what he has lived through. That is why the conversation happens at all — and it is why the program has always hired from the neighborhoods it serves rather than into them.
📸 Our Work in the Community
out on the block, in the park, in the roomSafe Passages, back-to-school drives, park days, training, graduations and the ordinary events where an organization becomes known well enough that someone calls it at two in the morning. Tap any photo to see it larger.
🤝 Keep Your Community Safe · & What To Do After a Crime
small things that add up — and help if you've been hurt🌳 Keeping your community safe
Safety is built by neighbors, not just by police. These are the things that actually lower violence on a block — the same things our violence interrupters do every day.
💔 If you or someone you love has been affected by a crime
You are not alone, and help does not depend on anyone being arrested. Here is what you can do, at your own pace.
• Lost someone to homicide — Cornerstone of Hope, 216-524-4673; children who lost a parent — Guns Down Hopes Up, 216-401-2340
• Sexual assault — Cleveland Rape Crisis Center 24/7, 216-619-6192
• Domestic violence — Journey Center for Safety & Healing 24/7, 216-391-4357
• Hospital-based trauma recovery — MetroHealth, 216-778-8199
📍 Your Neighborhood
the challenges, and who can helpPick your neighborhood to see, in plain language, the conditions driving risk there — and exactly who represents you and how to reach them.
What's happening here
Who represents you
📚 Resources near you
🏫 Schools in your community
✅ This week, you can help
🗺️ Neighborhood Map
crime, risk, interventions & assetsToggle the layers to see where risk concentrates, where our violence interrupters anchor, and the community assets and events near you.
🧒 For Youth & Families
summer programs, sports, jobs & mentoringThe best violence prevention is a young person with somewhere to be and someone who believes in them. Free and low-cost programs across the neighborhoods:
Youth programs
🧠 Free mental health support
🎟️ Free for families
💼 Jobs & employment
🏙️ Downtown & The Flats
where the neighborhoods meetDowntown and the Flats are where young people from across the city come together — Tower City, the waterfront, events. Our team travels with youth from the neighborhoods to keep those trips safe. Most downtown incidents are theft and property crime, not violence — a little awareness goes a long way.
📅 Which days it happens
Reported incidents downtown by day of the week, this year.
🕐 What time of day
The same incidents by time of day.
What it mostly is
📅 Community Events
back-to-school, resource fairs & moreFormal and informal events happening across the neighborhoods. Know one we're missing? Share it and we'll add it.
Upcoming & recurring
📣 Share an event
Hosting a back-to-school drive, cookout, vigil, or resource fair? Send us the details and we'll put it on the map.
👀 Report a Tip
see something building? tell usIf you're seeing conflict brewing online or in the neighborhood — a beef on social media, a threat, a situation that could turn violent — let our team know so an interrupter can step in early. You choose how much to share.
Submit a tip
⚠️ If someone is in danger right now
A tip is not monitored 24/7 and is not for emergencies. If there is an immediate threat to life, call 911. For a crisis, call or text 988. This tip line helps our interrupters get ahead of conflict before it escalates — it does not replace emergency services.
🏛️ City Information Channels
official newsletters, news feeds & programming📰 What the City & Council announced recently
Straight from the city's own news feeds, updated every morning. Click any headline to read it on the city site.
🏛️ Contact Your Representatives
click, type your concern, sendYour voice is an upstream lever. These are the verified public contacts for the council members and mayor serving the reNOUNce deNOUNce footprint. Clicking "Email" opens your mail app with a message started for you.
📊 Community Safety Snapshot
Cleveland gun-violence trendsViolence here is serious — and it has been falling. These are the latest public numbers for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. The year on each card is the most recent one officially published — homicide, shooting and health totals are certified annually and always run a year or two behind. The live day-to-day picture is on the neighborhood map further down.
💰 The Cost & The Solution
why prevention is the cheaper choiceCleveland already spends heavily on the aftermath of violence. Here's what it costs now — and a prevention approach that costs a small fraction, for the same goal: fewer people hurt.
🤝 Get Involved
it takes the whole communitySafer neighborhoods are built by neighbors. Here's how to be part of it:
🏘️ Start or join a block club
Organized blocks are safer blocks. Your neighborhood CDC (listed in "Your Neighborhood") can help you start one and connect you with neighbors.
🙌 Volunteer with reNOUNce deNOUNce
Become a mentor or credible messenger, or help at outreach events and community days.
Get involved ↗💛 Support the work
Every $1 of prevention returns $7–$19 in avoided harm. Help fund interrupters, youth jobs and healing.
Donate ↗📌 Community board — what neighbors are doing
Cleaned a lot, walked kids to school, hosted a cookout, checked on an elder — share it here so the whole neighborhood can see what getting involved looks like.
✍️ Share what you did
Goes to our team by email — it opens your email app, so your address will be visible to us (not published). We post entries by hand.