{"id":162694,"date":"2026-03-13T19:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162694\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:17:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:17:39","slug":"after-bed-stuy-success-brooklyn-da-plans-project-restore-expansion-to-brownsville-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162694\/","title":{"rendered":"After Bed-Stuy success, Brooklyn DA plans Project Restore expansion to Brownsville \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building on the success of Project Restore Bed-Stuy<\/a> (PRB), a 12-month, community-based gang-violence intervention pilot program launched in 2023, the Kings County District Attorney\u2019s Office (KCDA) and its partner organizations convened for a brainstorming session at the NYU campus in Downtown Brooklyn on March 11, seeking to strengthen cross-agency collaboration and clarify the roles of each organization ahead of the planned launch of Project Restore Brownsville in the coming months.<\/p>\n

After the takedown of two rival Bed-Stuy gangs in 2021, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, in collaboration with Columbia University\u2019s Center for Justice, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Criminal Justice, KCDA, Bridge Street Development Corporation and Inside Circle, launched PRB based on a joint policy proposal drafted in 2019 by New York City lawmakers and the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) program at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

The community-based initiative aimed to de-escalate and reduce gang violence, limit law-enforcement interactions, and provide 30 young men ages 18 to 30 from two rival gangs or street crews with a holistic, structured path toward stability. The program offered education and workforce development, internships, life-skills training, individual and group therapy, and mentorship from former gang members on issues such as conflict resolution.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kings County District Attorney\u2019s Office and its partner organizations convened for brainstorming session for the next phase of Project Restore.<\/p>\n

The program had a 100% success rate: all participants graduated; seven enrolled in college, one completed high school, three enrolled in GED programs, and 43% earned employment credentials, according to Columbia University\u2019s Center for Justice post-evaluation report<\/a>. Participants also contributed to community safety by holding speaking engagements and organizing community events.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said programs like PRB contributed to a substantial reduction in shootings and homicides. The initiative in Bed-Stuy led to a 28% drop in shooting incidents and a 22% decrease in felony assaults, and prevented five retaliatory shootings and an estimated 12.5 years of incarceration.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrograms like this are the cause of that,\u201d Gonzalez told Brooklyn Paper, noting that 2025 was the safest year<\/a> in Brooklyn\u2019s history. \u201cWhat\u2019s amazing about these young men\u2019s transformation is that they choose to participate. They\u2019re not being mandated by a court, the US attorney, or the district attorney to be involved. They choose to be involved, and so they create the right mindsets for themselves, and we provide the right stimulus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said the project\u2019s next phase in Brownsville \u2014 a neighborhood that saw the largest decline in homicides in 2025, with seven murders compared with 21 the previous year \u2014 will build on recent gains in crime reduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re investing in Brownsville now because we want to keep that progress,\u201d Gonzalez said, adding that, contrary to arguments that gentrification drove falling crime rates, \u201cthere\u2019s no real significant gentrification in Brownsville or East New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at the crime stats, the shooting numbers are down in Bed-Stuy, in Brownsville, in East New York; neighborhoods that have not seen that type of gentrification,\u201d Gonzalez said.\n<\/p>\n

De\u2019Shawn Willis, Darnell Bowers, Tahari Spencer, Titus Smith and Jonathan Arroyo are among the 30 participants who graduated from the project in 2024. They described the program as a \u201cgame changer\u201d and told Brooklyn Paper it gave them a \u201csecond chance at life\u201d while also benefiting the broader community.<\/p>\n

De\u2019Shawn works as a participant engagement coordinator at the B.R.O. Experience Foundation<\/a>, a nonprofit that offers trauma-informed mentorship and programs, including cognitive-behavioral therapy. He told Brooklyn Paper that before joining PRB, he spent \u201ca lot of time in the streets.\u201d When he turned 30, he realized he needed to change his life. He joined the program and completed it with a perfect attendance record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was motivated,\u201d De\u2019Shawn said. \u201cI had perfect attendance when I was outside in them streets. Why wouldn\u2019t I do it for something positive?\u201d
\n\"\"De\u2019Shawn Willis, Dr. UniQue Starks and Tahari Spencer attend the Project Restore brainstorming session.\n<\/p>\n

About two years ago, he joined the B.R.O. Experience Foundation as a community coordinator and community change facilitator. The work, he said, is fulfilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want these young guys to experience freedom. I want these young guys to experience life. I tell them all the time, \u2018If you stay in just one neighborhood, one area, and you\u2019re not going out exploring this world, you\u2019re still technically in jail. You\u2019re still technically incarcerated,\u201d De\u2019Shawn said.<\/p>\n

Darnell, who also works for the B.R.O. Experience as a program outreach coordinator and serves as a Center for Justice ambassador at James Baldwin High School in Manhattan alongside Tahari Spencer, said PRB helped participants find the tools to build bridges toward the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to make sure all the things that I learned, that helped me change my life around, that I can just spill back into the community. Because I always believed that not everybody has the chance to leave where they grew up, but that doesn\u2019t mean that you can make it better and livable,\u201d Darnell said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jonathan Arroyo, Titus Smith, Darnell Bowers and Tahari Spencer described the program as a \u201cgame changer.\u201dPhoto by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Left to right: Eldra Jackson, Titus Smith, Columbia Professor Geraldine Downey and Tahari Spencer attend the Project Restore brainstorming session.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Tahari, a journalism student at Kingsborough College, and Titus, a full-time student at Kingsborough Community College who is preparing to graduate with a major in mental health and human services \u2014 both now full-time outreach coordinators at Man Up Inc.<\/a>, a Brooklyn-based violence-prevention organization \u2014 said programs like PRB are an antidote to overpolicing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese types of programs, if you had these in neighborhoods, [there] would be less violence. You would not have to put more police in,\u201d Titus said. \u201cI\u2019m glad we had the opportunity to be the examples to show that it actually can work. Now we talk about [expanding the program]. I\u2019m glad that the city is taking a shift into changing how we react to crime, and letting the community be a little more hands-on about the situations that happen in their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahari said that after graduating from high school, he lacked a \u201csense of direction,\u201d and that PRB gave him a blueprint for his life by providing opportunities and connections.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to just put more police in the neighborhood and just send more people to jail, but that will never be the answer to the problem,\u201d Tahari said. \u201cThere are circumstances and underlying issues and needs that aren\u2019t being met that cause people to be desperate and do these things that they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s never as simple or as black-and-white as someone just wants to commit a crime. It\u2019s never like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan, a violence interrupter and supervisor at Man Up! Inc., said that in addition to providing a foundation, PRB helped bring the community together.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see this in over 20 plus years; to see how we are as a community now, and see how me and my friends, Titus, Tahari, and Darnell, how we are now, and coexist with each other, it\u2019s been a beautiful thing, and that\u2019s what Project Restore actually did,\u201d Jonathan said.<\/p>\n

Implementing a program like PRB showed that the Brooklyn district attorney valued them as human beings, he said, and that community members finally received the attention they needed.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have someone who actually humanized us and said, \u2018Hey, listen, it\u2019s more than just crime. It\u2019s about pain. It\u2019s about agony. It\u2019s about the other things that come with crime, and not just crime alone.\u2019 And to have someone to pay attention to that that\u2019s important to not just only me and us, [but] to the whole community, to the next generation,\u201d Jonathan said.<\/p>\n

Representatives of Inside Circle<\/a>, an organization that provides reform programs for people affected by the justice system, highlighted the importance of investing in justice-involved communities by addressing underlying problems.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. James McLeary and Eldra Jackson III noted the importance of investing in justice-involved communities.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Dr. James McLeary, an Inside Circle elder and board member, said many justice-impacted young men struggle to find purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work we do is about wellness and wholeness. If you ask most young men what they want to be in their lives, they don\u2019t know. If you ask them when they think they\u2019re going to die, they think it\u2019s going to be sometime in their early 20s. So when they discover their purpose, they see beyond the life that they\u2019ve been living,\u201d McLeary said.<\/p>\n

Inside Circle Executive Director Eldra Jackson III said Gonzalez took a \u201cleap of courage\u201d in launching the initiative.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as community safety without whole and healthy individuals who feel safe within themselves. That\u2019s where it starts,\u201d Jackson said. \u201c[Gonzalez] understands the problems and the issues that are at epidemic levels in our communities. He understands that you cannot arrest your way out. You have to have community members be a part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Building on the success of Project Restore Bed-Stuy (PRB), a 12-month, community-based gang-violence intervention pilot program launched in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[67087,98,21314,100,99,6616,67088,67089,67090,67091,9,24,12,370,63,67092,67093,67094,67095],"class_list":["post-162694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-bridge-street-development-corporation","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-district-attorney-eric-gonzalez","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brownsville","tag-columbia-universityu2019s-center-for-justice","tag-inside-circle","tag-kcda","tag-kings-county-district-attorneys-office","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-prb","tag-project-restore","tag-project-restore-bed-stuy","tag-the-mayoru2019s-office-of-criminal-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}