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What is RISE?

Relentless Interrupters Serving Everyone

The Relentless Interrupters Serving Everyone (RISE) is a community-based solution to reducing gun violence using a public health approach that operates outside of and is complementary to law enforcement. This pilot program utilizes credible messengers to interrupt violence and defuse immediate tensions in an effort to help build long-term peace while creating a safer community for everyone. This is achieved by employing members of the community who have had similar life experiences to those at the highest risk of committing acts of violence or becoming a victim of violence.

Program Overview

The R.I.S.E Program will incorporate the most effective strategies from community-based violence prevention programs across the country. Outreach Specialists (Credible Messengers) are essential to the success of the model. As the pilot program is in the early stages, these individuals are critical to program and community development as they often have similar lived experiences to program participants and have strong reputations in the community. The program has four primary components.

Credible Messengers

Identify individuals & locations that are highest impacted by violence.

Community-based Outreach

Credible messengers are trained in conflict resolution and mediation to intervene in situations prior to escalation or a loss of life. Outreach workers are in the pilot communities, communicating with the most-at-risk. Many members of the team reside in the very neighborhoods where they work; they share similar backgrounds with the men they seek to support. To be successful, they must understand the area and the impact violence has on the community. Outreach workers build a rapport with at-risk individuals, learning their stories to establish trust necessary for dialogue. Outreach Specialists are on call 24/7 to reduce tensions in real time, prevent violent incidences, and prevent retaliations.

Hospital-based Intervention

As the most common destination for victims of serious violent injuries, emergency rooms and trauma centers serve as key resources in efforts to break cycles of violence. Credible messengers meet victims, their families, and close social networks at bedside to assess and intervene in the event of retaliatory activity. Messengers understand the underlying needs of survivors and their families and connect them to coordinated care teams to aid in their recovery beyond discharge.

Ongoing Community Engagement

CVIP staff are present in the pilot communities to engage residents, distribute public education materials, and host community-building activities to promote neighborhood cohesion. CVIP staff aims to communicate clear messages around alternatives to violence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: We have law enforcement, why do we need additional violence prevention programs?

A: In Harris County, the zip codes with the highest rates of gun violence also have the greatest social challenges: generational poverty, insufficient or no health insurance, lack of access to healthy food, underemployment, and economic insecurity. 

As a public health department, Harris County Public Health (HCPH) views violence as a health issue. Violent behavior does not happen in a vacuum, but in environments suffering from systemic and chronic social stressors. The “public health approach” to addressing violence focuses on prevention through addressing the known factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of violence

Q: How did these violence prevention programs come about?

A. Violent crime is increasing nationally and locally. In August 2021, Harris County Commissioner’s Court approved Harris County Public Health (HCPH) to establish its Community Health and Violence Prevention Services Division to administer programs that use a public health approach to violence prevention. Considering the needs of some of the County’s most violent communities, and researching other successful programs throughout the country, HCPH created the program structure, selected the pilot communities and the prevention strategies to use in each pilot.

Q: Who will operate the Violence Prevention Program?

A. HCPH will operate the program through its Community Health and Violence Prevention Division.

Q: What are the goals of the program?

A. The goals are to prevent violence and improve the health, wellbeing, and self-sufficiency of Harris County community members. Violence victimizes entire communities: claiming lives, ripping apart families, robbing community members of their sense of security, and destroying their neighborhood economies. The program offers resources that are complimentary to law enforcement and addresses unmet needs.

Q: Will these programs be used in all Harris County communities?

A. The programs were launched in Spring 2022 in two pilot communities, Cypress Station in unincorporated Harris County and Sunnyside, in the City of Houston. We look forward to expanding to reach more of Harris County.

Q: How does the Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART) work?

The Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART) will launch in some areas of Cypress Station, in unincorporated Harris County. This is a new model for responding to non-violent 911 calls.

  • Not all 911 calls require a deputy or police officer. If someone calls 911 regarding a homeless person, or with an urgent mental health issue, law enforcement may not be needed.
  • When this program launched, Sheriff’s Department Dispatchers now have a new option for responding to non-violent, 911 calls in parts of Cypress Station.
  • Dispatchers will determine which incidents are appropriate to send a HART unit to.
  • These are teams of trained social workers, behavioral health, and medical professionals.  They are not armed and will be in uniforms and vehicles identifying them as HART.
  • Their training allows them to effectively assist someone in distress and connect them to the appropriate resources for help.
  • If people get help with housing, mental or physical health issues, they may not repeat the behavior that resulted in a 911 call.
  • HART provides resources that are complimentary to law enforcement and frees up law enforcement officers to focus on violent crime.
  • These resources are provided by (HCPH) and don’t require law enforcement funding.
  • The HART program is administered by HCPH’s Community Health and Violence Prevention Services Division.
Q: Is there evidence these two programs will work?

A: Both the Community Violence Interruption Program and HART are currently being used successfully in dozens of U.S. cities, including in Texas. It has reduced the number of calls requiring law enforcement, connected people in distress with needed resources and freed up law enforcement to deal with violence, which is increasing locally and nationally.