In 2007 in Richmond, California a collaboration with the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) and the city of Richmond fostered the creation of Operation Peacemaker (OP). OP is a program that hires ex-cons as mentors for high profile young offenders to not only encourage and support them in turning away from a life of crime and gang violence, but provide them with internship and job opportunities. A record 47 homicides were committed in 2007, more than eight times the national average. By 2008, after the establishment of the program, the killings dropped by 40%. However, in 2009, the homicides rose to 47 again due to a miscalculation in where to focus mentorship. Rather than focusing intervention in high risk areas, attention needed to be focused with high risk people who create those areas. OP is an 18-month program. After 6-months of being in the program, the young men can apply for a monthly stipend which can reach up to $1000 depending on their participation and achievements. Most earn about $300 to $750 a month. They can make money for up to 9-months. Once these men complete the program, they can re-apply, but most move on into the world to live reformed lives. Along with the stipend, the young men meet with mothers who have lost their sons to gun violence, create a life map detailing the barriers they face and how to overcome them, meet with anger-management experts, visit colleges and meet with business leaders, and are given the opportunity through private donations to travel to different parts of America as well as outside of the country while being paired up with a rival whom has been suspected of trying to kill them or visa versa in order for them to share their stories and to allow them to see each other as human beings and heal. Gun violence costs America more than $229 billion per year for emergency and medical care for gunshot wounds. Gun violence on average costs more than $700 per American every year and $1400 per resident in certain states. #GunViolence #Crips #Bloods #Richmond #OperationPeacemaker #DeVoneBoggan #GangViolence #OfficeOfNeighborhoodSafety #ONS #MAGA #VOTM Sources: lawcenter.giffords.org, CNN.com (at Richmond, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz8spzFjoQk/?igshid=ys3733ouymxi