SNUG: Getting “Smart” on Crime

When Malcolm Smith, president of the NY State Senate, signaled his support for a community-based violence prevention model called SNUG (“guns” spelled backwards) –  based on the successful CeaseFire model out of Chicago - NYADP staff collaborated closely with the Community Coalition to Prevent Violence in Albany to insure that NYADP’s identified stakeholders would play a role in shaping the program both statewide and locally.  

With NYADP’s support, Senator Smith succeeded in putting $4 million in the state budget to implement SNUG in eight communities across New York. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first instance of state funding for a grassroots violence prevention project that is community-led and community-based. 

NYADP board member Lisa Good of Albany, whose Urban Grief project serves inner city victims of violence, has a leadership role in Albany’s SNUG implementation effort. Our staff has networked with other SNUG initiatives around the state to encourage stakeholder participation and holistic approaches.  

NYADP seized the opportunity to play an important role in promoting SNUG, which can only succeed if community stakeholders learn about the potential benefits and agree to pitch in. To this end, NYADP invited participants and speakers to a well-attended June 2009 forum of the Albany Coalition addressing community concerns about violence. The forum was attended by more than a dozen members of Family and Friends of Homicide Victims, NYADP’s victims’/survivors’  chapter.  

SNUG - and other initiatives like it - must be given a chance to succeed or the state could revert to outdated crime control methodologies that are purely reactive and that fail to engage community stakeholders in neighborhoods most affected by violence. A coherent multiple-site implementation of SNUG with measurable success in achieving violence reduction goals will highlight the need to provide funding for more evidence-based violence prevention programs.