Program Context.
While LiveFree OKC's Community-Based Violence Intervention program relies on an evidence-based model, the program is shaped by community and local assets, ensuring that the program is a program "OF" the community.
Proven strategies exist
There are proven, evidence-based violence reduction strategies that are simply not funded or supported at scale. These strategies typically reduce shootings and homicides by 30-60% (without increasing incarceration), but often go ignored.
A small number of very high-risk individuals are responsible for the majority of gun violence.
In many cities, up to 70% of gun related homicides can be attributed to this small, identifiable group of individuals.
A central principle underlying the LiveFree Model is to engage this group.
In Oakland, for example, researchers found that, despite a high proportion of residents with criminal records, only about 400 of the over 400,000 residents were involved in the majority of homicides.
