Mount Vernon SNUG of FSW

The SNUG (guns spelled backwards) Street Outreach program provides funding and training from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services to nonprofit organizations that manage street outreach programs in 13 communities – Albany, Buffalo, Hempstead, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Syracuse, The Bronx, Troy, Yonkers, and Wyandanch. SNUG embraces a public health approach toward the problem of street violence by using outreach workers who have ties within their communities and can work with the individuals who are most likely to be involved with gun violence.  

These workers help connect high-risk individuals with resources such as educational institutions, mental health services, and jobs. The outreach team responds to shootings and other violent incidents to prevent retaliation and also helps detect conflicts and resolve them peacefully before they lead to additional violence. Established in 2009, the program has its own training curriculum, which was developed using best practices from other programs and integrates the use of crime analysis to guide its work.