Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence

"Peace gang: Two rival gang members return to the streets to play the role of peacemakers"

Two Institute Streetworkers are featured in the Providence Journal, describing the challenges and the hopes they have for their communities.

The story includes interviews with Streetworkers Ray, Tou and Executive Director Teny Gross, as well as previous stories on Streetworkers program manager Ajay Benton ("He gave up crime to save others from gangs") and Senior Streetworker, Sareth Tony Kim ("Once he killed; now he turns to peacemaker").

Check out the Providence Journal's multimedia page on Ray and Tou...

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Download the PDF here.

Providence Business News: Streetworkers do their part to limit gang violence

Social justice
Streetworkers do their part to limit gang violence

PBN PHOTO/MATTHEW HEALEY
TENY GROSS, executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, talks to Institute “Streetworker” Larry Davis, right, and Brandon Ferrell.

By Denise Perreault
PBN Staff Writer

Barry Preston, managing director of the Armory Revival Co. on Westminster Street, credits a dedicated group of young people with improving the safety of what was a tough part of Valley Street in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood.

“Four years ago, we renovated an old mill there, in an environment that was not thought to be safe and we were concerned about that,” he said last week. Col. Dean Esserman, Providence’s police chief, referred him to a group called the Streetworkers. Preston said his business then teamed up with educators at the Oliver H. Perry Middle School to find the funds to bring the Streetworkers to Olneyville.