This case study is part of the Reimagining Public Safety Impact Updates Resource, which highlights successful programs in cities, towns and villages across the country. View the Reimagining Public Safety Initiative to learn more about NLC’s work in creating safe, equitable communities for all. This is one of four municipalities illustrating Hospital-Based Violence Interventions, which provide trauma-informed care and support services to patients with violent injuries in order to reduce criminal involvement and rehospitalization.
Oakland, CA (pop. 440,646): Youth ALIVE! Caught in the Crossfire (CiC)
Youth ALIVE! Caught in the Crossfire (CiC), launched in 1994, is lauded as the first hospital-based violence intervention program. CiC staff meet survivors of violence at their hospital bedsides to convince them, their friends, and their family not to retaliate while also offering ongoing personal support around safety, healing, and growth. The staff work with hospitalized violence-involved youth: typically, those who survived being shot, stabbed or assaulted. Trained intervention specialists offer long-term case management, connection to community services, home-based mentoring, and hospital-based assistance. Youth ALIVE! has various programming in the prevention, intervention and healing areas of community violence intervention.
Evaluations of CiC found that it reduced recidivism rates, with clients 70 percent less likely to be arrested and 60 percent less likely to have any criminal involvement compared to those who did not participate in the program. In 2021, 2 percent of clients were re-hospitalized for violence-related injuries and in 2023, 4 percent of clients were re-injured. An evaluation found that CiC has led to between in hospital savings. In 2022, Youth Alive! intervention programs and services had and grants from foundations and other nonprofits brought in
In 2022, CiC served 171 clients; an additional 284 received short-term crisis intervention. More than half of clients received assistance obtaining victims of crime compensation, over 40 percent received help with an education plan, more than a third received help with employment, and nearly 20 percent received housing assistance.
Key performance metrics collected include:
- Clients arrested
- Clients reinjured
- Clients engaged in criminal involvement
- Short-term crisis intervention participants
- Clients receiving victim of crime compensation
- Clients completed education plan
- Clients connected with employment
- Clients connected with housing assistance
View the Reimagining Public Safety Impact Update
Learn more about what different cities have done to support public safety, including qualitative and quantitative measures highlighting the impact of community responder models, group violence interventions, hospital-based violence interventions and community violence interventions.