Young adults who reside in the public housing units that city authorities claim to be the most dangerous in New York City were astonished to find that their city-led mentoring program was suspended last month with only seven days’ warning.
They joined non-profit executives and a few city council members on Friday to demand that the Department of Probation resume the Next STEPS program at the City Council committee hearing on criminal justice, claiming that they had been let down by the City.
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Samiya Spain, 19, a Next STEPS mentee, spoke to the media about the young people in the program, “Yet again, somebody has gave up on them.” She added, “This was like an outlet for them to get away from certain things.”
Over 200 persons aged 16 to 24 who reside in or close to the City’s most crime-ridden housing complexes have received one-on-one and group mentorship through this program from organizations over the past nine years thanks to funding from the department.
The program’s aim was preventative: to assist young people who have been exposed to violence in choosing to pursue careers in school and employment rather than engaging in criminal activities.
Young people were provided with a hot meal, job training, help with licenses and IDs, support with school, counseling, and guidance during weekly sessions led by community mentors, many of whom had personal experience with the criminal justice system.
The probation department did, however, send an email at 8 p.m. on one day in late August informing the Next STEPS providers that their contracts had been terminated and giving them five working days to cease the program.
They expressed their “astonishment” in a letter to Juanita Holmes, commissioner of the Department of Probation.
Peleya Patterson, a Next STEPS provider at Good Shepherd Services noted, “My initial reaction was shock.” She continued, “And then it was followed by sadness for our young people.”
At a yearly cost of $2.5 million, the program serviced 240 young people at a time across 14 locations.
Holmes said during the committee hearing on Friday that when her team evaluated the program, they were not offered concrete “outcomes” for young people, such as proof of them gaining employment, avoiding gangs, or increasing their grades.
She shrugged, “The only metric I was provided was attendance.” She continued by saying that the bulk of the program’s young participants had been transferred to other mentorship initiatives. However, providers assert that the new programs the students were placed in are not equivalent to Next STEPS. They said that Next Steps is a preventive program, whereas the other programs are either for those who are on probation or are managed by the police—not individuals from the areas they serve—and are not handled by people who are from those neighborhoods.
During the meeting, councilwoman Carlina Rivera addressed Holmes, “Commissioner, the program mentored 240 people to prevent violence.” The councilwoman noted, “And if this program prevented even one person from being shot and killed, do you not think the program pays for itself?”
In the six months since her appointment, the commissioner said that Mayor Eric Adams given her “marching orders” to lower recidivism.
According to Scott Short, the chief executive officer of RiseBoro Community Partnership, a nonprofit that offers the Next STEPS program to young people in Brownsville who have been connected with the criminal system, the city should put more of an emphasis on avoiding violence.
“The Department of Probation seems to be cutting back all types of prevention programming and really only focusing on services for people already on probation, and that’s not the right approach to reducing violent crime,” he noted.
He cited Next STEPS as one of the most “highly impactful” preventive initiatives he had ever seen, despite its tiny size. So much so that Riseboro is keeping the program going if it can on its own dime.
The program has been said to change the lives of young people for the better.
Janeece Holloway, a Next STEPs mentor, stated that when she first began the program as a 19-year-old, it taught her how to manage her anger. She was worried about the younger program participants who would no longer receive the same assistance as she had.
“There’s going to be more in the streets now, more acting up, getting arrested.”
When he was admitted to the program as a 19-year-old by probation, Erick McNamee, now 27 years old, claimed it taught him how to “make a way.” He took a digital marketing course and learned character development from a mentor.
“Usually high schools are like your backbone. And then once you leave that, you in these streets,” he shared. “We’re not left with many choices and we’re not always given the best direction.”
The Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, introduced by Bill de Blasio in 2014, included Next STEPS as a component to combat the alarming increase in crime that was occurring in 15 of the most dangerous NYCHA developments at the time, where residents were disproportionately the targets of violence.
These NYCHA residents continue to experience a disproportionate amount of violent crime over ten years later.
The announcement of the program’s termination comes as Mayor Eric Adams has asked agencies to make general budget cutbacks of 5% by November and a total of 15% by next April.
Early this year, the Department of Correction cut $17 million worth of initiatives that assisted Rikers Island inmates in finding employment, housing, abstaining from narcotics, and reuniting with loved ones after their release. According to a department representative, the agency has brought the programming that was previously handled by contractual suppliers in-house.
At the meeting on Friday, Next STEPS providers and prisoner advocates blasted the city for programming cuts, claiming they injure those who have been released from prison, raise the risk of recidivism, and don’t make the city safer.
