With his dad in prison and his mom suffering from alcoholism, Malik Grant faced abandonment and instability early on. He got used to people letting him down. So when outreach workers from a Baltimore anti-violence program offered to help him stay safe and leave the streets behind, he didn’t necessarily have high expectations.
Two years later, Grant has an apartment and a full-time job with the city’s Department of Public Works. He recently started his own business that provides cleaning, landscaping and junk removal services. He plans to hire other young men from his old neighborhood to show them what is possible with hard work.
“I just needed a push,” he said with a smile. Grant, 29, is among about 200 people receiving support through Baltimore’s relatively new Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which targets the root causes of gun violence: hopelessness, joblessness, poverty, mental health, substance abuse, housing instability, poor conflict resolution and more.
The program uses a “carrot and stick” approach. Where possible, it offers resources and social services to those most likely to become shooters or victims. But if they stay involved in crime, they face police investigation and potential prosecution, which has led to over 350 arrests since the new strategy launched in January 2022.
The early results are promising. Baltimore's homicides plummet. Baltimore recorded 201 homicides in 2024, the lowest annual total in over a decade, according to police data. It marks a 23% drop from the previous year, a downward trend that began in 2023. Nonfatal shootings also have fallen significantly.
