Project Longevity at risk?

Six employees from a joint federal and state anti-violence initiative continued to work despite not been paid for months, according to federal officials.

Due to the state’s fiscal crisis, Project Longevity’s statewide coordinator, three project managers and two service coordinators have been working without pay — or assurance they will receive retroactive pay, according to U.S. Attorney’s office stated. A seventh employee already has resigned. The initiative is aimed at re-

ducing violence and helping people get out of the gang lifestyle. It presents individuals with a range of positive alternative services, such as help with addiction, medical and mental health treatment, educational opportunities, housing and employment assistance.

The state budget for Project Longevity has included the salaries for these six individuals, who work in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport, along with the social services. A social service coordinator in Hartford has already left, and the initiative may lose the project manager in Hartford and another social service coordinator in New Haven, officials said.

Stacy R. Spell, the New Haven project manager, said even though he has not been paid since June, it does not stop them from doing the work.

“Yes, the work still has to be done. We still have things that are in motion that we can’t stop in spite of the lack of being paid,” Spell said “The things we are doing here in New Haven, no one else in the country is doing .... We can’t just stop because of [the lack of payment]. I can modify my hours, but I still have conduct the work that has to be done.”

He said the day-to-day operations are still in effect, but they don’t have the necessary resources to offer the crucial social services the program provides so they have been relying on human capital.

Project Longevity launched in New Haven in 2012 as a strategy to combat gang or group-on-group violence, with Hartford and Bridgeport launching their own models in 2013. The effort identifies individuals most at risk of causing — or being victims of — violence in the community. As part of the model, federal, state and local law enforcement conduct “call-ins” for those individuals. First, they deliver a clear message: If any member of the gang or “posse” commits a serious act of violence in the community, the entire focus of state and federal law enforcement will shine on the entire group. These meetings also have been attended by the social service providers who offer the support the individuals need if they choose to leave the street life.

Brett Peterkin, the statewide coordinator, said the two-pronged approach goes hand in hand. He said the “ecosystem” of service providers and community organizations are also affected by this “budgetary impasse.”

“It’s difficult to work at full capacity because there’s an expense related to working, whether it’s commuting costs or things of that nature,” Peterkin said. “There’s also our social services... where we facilitate services, but [then] there are some things that we offer to individuals who are looking to get out of the street life directly. We can’t do that if we don’t have a budget.”

The framework of the initiative, which helped reduce gun violence in Boston, Cincinnati and Chicago, is based on the philosophy and work of criminologist David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

A 2015 Yale University study found Project Longevity has made an impact in reducing shootings and homicides. Michael Sierra-Arevalo, a doctoral candidate at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies and lead author of the study, said, “[m]oving away from traditional deterrence and broken windows approaches that privilege broadly applied police sweeps or enforcement of minor offenses, New Haven’s Project Longevity is one more instance of how targeting specific offenders, in this case members of violent street groups, can significantly enhance public safety.”

While the employees are committed to keeping their “promise” to the community the lack of funding for the positions is hurting them and their efforts, Assistant New Haven Police Chief Achilles “Archie” Generoso said.

“It’s so important that the funding continues for Project Longevity, and it hurts that the Legislature hasn’t been able to present a budget…. These services are needed, and we need to keep Project Longevity functioning,” he said.

Former Project Longevity Program Manager Rev. Williams Mathis cited enduring periods of without payment as one of the reasons for his resignation in 2014. At the time, Mathis, who was program manager for two years and four months for the city’s ceasefire initiative, stated there had been at least four to five different instances during his tenure where payment was an issue.

“These are real people here,” Peterkin said. “Although we are committed and dedicated, there is a reality. We all have households, and that can only go on for so long.”