Restoring Social Justice

The Richmond Outreach Center

 The Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) is a ministry in Richmond, Virginia that is setting a new standard when it comes to effectively meeting the needs of the surrounding community.  According to a case study performed by the Baylor Institute for the Studies of Religion, the city of Richmond had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation in 1999, and in 2001, the violent crime rate for youth under 18 was almost four times the state average. 

To deal with these staggering statistics, the ROC has grown to include 144 ministries that have served the community since 2001.  The keystone program for the ROC has been a bus ministry that deploys 20 buses every Saturday afternoon to pick up between 900 and 1,200 youth (ages 5-12) for programs at the center. The majority of these children come from single parent households and would likely find themselves as another statistic to add to the violent crime rate for youth under 18.  But through this program and other after-school programs, the ROC builds long-term relationships of trust with children and youth and is able to supply them with 1,400 backpacks filled with school supplies, 2,400 children with Christmas gifts, and involve over 100 kids per month in one of its youth sports programs.[1] 

Another exciting partnership involving the ROC, includes a local high school, George Wythe High School.  In 2007-2007, George Wythe High School had a truancy rate of 66 percent and was tied for the most youth arrested between January and June of 2008, comprising 36% of all youth arrests among Richmond high schools.  But dynamic partnerships within the local community, including the ROC, have been able to turn this story around over the course of just two years.  With a team that includes Principal Willie Bell, the Richmond Police, private funders, the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE), and Violence Free Zone (VFZ) youth advisors provided by the ROC, the results for this local high school have been remarkable.  Youth advisors who work daily to build relationships with students at the school are able to focus on what they call the 10 percent rule:

“[T]he 10% rule is really about the 10% of kids causing the disruption at school, and then drilling down to the 10% of those that are really the driving force behind those conflicts. By engaging and re-directing these leaders, we have seen significant reductions in incidents, particularly gang-related incidents, in the schools where the VFZ initiative is operating.”

By applying this strategy, VFZ youth advisors have been able to promote good behavior among troubled students, with results showing: improved safety within the schools (18% decrease in police calls for service), increased presence of students in school (decrease in truancy rate by 41%), and a reduced need for police services/intervention (15% decrease in arrests).[2]

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[1] Byron Johnson and William Wubbenhorst, “Richmond Violence Free Zone Initiative,” Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, April 14, 2010, p. 6-7, at http://www.isreligion.org/publications/casestudies/documents/case_richmond.pdf.

[2] Byron Johnson and William Wubbenhorst, “Richmond Violence Free Zone Initiative,” Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, April 14, 2010, p. 18, at http://www.isreligion.org/publications/casestudies/documents/case_richmond.pdf.