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Uptown NYC anti-violence programs get help connecting young people with careers, creativity
By
Samir Ferdowsi
Published Jun 4, 2025
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Samir Ferdowsi / Gothamist
By
Samir Ferdowsi
Published Jun 4, 2025
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An anti-violence program based in East Harlem, a neighborhood hit particularly hard by spikes in shootings during the COVID-19 pandemic, will move ahead this year with city support despite losing funding from the federal Justice Department.
Getting Out and Staying Out, which focuses on post-incarceration reentry and violence prevention, will fund its 10-week career readiness program for teens and young adults, including eight weeks of paid internships, with the help of a $25,000 city grant. It’s among $295,000 for initiatives by uptown programs meant to curb youth gun violence that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced during a ceremony at Goddard Riverside Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center on Tuesday.
Led by uptown community members, the programs include mentor-based gardening, documentary filmmaking and resume workshops, and career development. This is the fourth summer Bragg’s office has awarded the grants, but represents the most money it’s presented to groups so far.
“ To see the young people get paid, to see them learn new skills, to see them be excited about their future — when you see young people just excited about doing things, it really spreads life to everybody,” said Yenia Vasquez, vice president of community programs at Getting Out and Staying Out. “The city really comes alive in the summer, but when you put good time in the hands of our participants and our young people, they do good things with it.”
East Harlem was especially plagued by gun violence during the pandemic, and became the site of one of the city’s gun violence “hot spots” — blocks with 10 or more shootings within those two years — according to a Gothamist analysis of NYPD data. The block around NYCHA’s East River Houses on East 102nd Street and First Avenue had some of the highest concentrations of gun violence in the city from 2020 to 2022.
Yet anti-violence and community-building initiatives among activists, law enforcement officials and residents have helped drive those figures down. From 2023 to 2025 there was about a 30% decrease in shootings near East Harlem‘s public housing complexes, while citywide they only went down by 7%, Gothamist previously found.
“When we invest in employment, when we invest in the economic well-being of our participants, we help keep them out of a lot of the stuff that gets them into trouble in the first place,” Vasquez said at Tuesday’s event. “And so when we can successfully keep them away and also keep them out, that really invests in a safer community and a brighter future for everybody.”
In Getting Out and Staying Out‘s program, young people will have access to internships with more than 50 potential employers across the city, according to Bragg’s office. They’ll also learn skills development and have access to therapy, his office said.
Through a program by the Maysles Documentary Center, participants will learn documentary filmmaking and “produce short films delivered through a combination of trauma-healing techniques,” Bragg’s office said in a press release. The group is renewing a partnership with the district attorney’s Gun Violence Prevention Initiative after a seven-year hiatus, according to the announcement.
“ We use filmmaking to amplify and expand underrepresented artists and narratives while empowering young filmmakers in creative self-expression, communicating ideas and advocating needs,” said Kazembe Balagun Balagun, the center’s executive director. “We're continually inspired by this new generation — heir awareness, their creativity and resilience shines through even in the face of growing adversity.”
Other organizations that received grants from the district attorney’s office include New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Not Another Child, and Street Corner Resources — all of which focus on community-led mentorship and education.
The Goddard Riverside Community Center, in partnership with the Positive Influence basketball program, will run a job-readiness program that gives participants responsibilities during tournaments and NYCHA-funded Teen Expansion summer enrichment programs. The Police Athletic League, in partnership with CitizenRacecar, will run a program where participants create content about their experiences with gun violence.
Tagged
Alvin Bragg
east harlem
manhattan
new york city
public safety
Samir Ferdowsi
Samir is a day-of reporter on the general assignment and breaking news desk. Previously Samir was a reporter, host and producer at VICE News.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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