Build Safe Communities Through Youth Rehabilitation
Urban crime and violence is a costly and divisive issue facing cities around the world. But the team from the Network for Empowerment & Progressive Initiative (NEPI) have an evidence-based solution to fix this – and it’s already showing results in geographies as diverse as Monrovia and Chicago.
Klubosumo Johnson Borh, the co-founder of NEPI, worked alongside two colleagues, Morlee Gugu Zawoo, Sr., and Nelson B George, to establish an organization in Monrovia as a response to the 14-year civil war in Liberia that conscripted thousands of youths as combatants. They explain how we can take their Cognitive Behavior Therapy approach, which has revolutionized community safety in Liberia, to other communities around the world. Borh hopes this program can be replicated everywhere to create safe communities with partnerships within government municipalities and aid agencies on a greater scale.
We sat down with Borh to learn more about NEPI’s mission to build stronger, safer communities, which contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 11: end poverty and all its forms and build sustainable cities and communities by 2030.
“Through psychosocial rehabilitation, I was able to turn my life around. Since then, I’ve spent decades trying to track down how to reintegrate hardcore young men back most effectively into normal society.”
~ Klubosumo Johnson Borh, NEPI
UA: What Sustainable Development Goal are you championing?
NEPI: SDG #1 No Poverty. I was among a generation of young Liberians who lost their childhood to 14 years of civil war and political instability. Through psychosocial rehabilitation, I was fortunate enough to be able to turn my life around. Since then, I’ve spent decades trying to track down how to reintegrate hardcore young men back most effectively into normal society. Over the past decades, I have spent my time applying talk therapy and cash transfer, to revolutionize community safety in Liberia.
UA: What inspired your moonshot idea?
NEPI: Urban crime and violence are costly and divisive issues facing cities around the world. Most urban violence is committed by a small number of young men. From Liberia to Chicago, research has shown it is possible to identify them, change their mindset, and integrate them into a law-abiding society, creating a safer community for everyone.
The Sustainable Transformation of Youth in Liberia (STYL) is a Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) youth rehabilitation program paired with cash transfers to reduce youth crime and violence and create safe communities for everyone.
The program was piloted in Liberia between 2009 and 2012 and it provided eight weeks of CBT and cash grants to young men in high-risk positions. The program reduced crime and violence by about 50% over 10 years—at a cost of $1.50 per crime avoided. The model has promise beyond West Africa with high returns to targeting the most violent and vulnerable young men.
We at NEPI would like to replicate the STYL program in Liberia to reach 2,500 participants in 3-year in the highest-risk neighborhoods in Monrovia, using the opportunity to better understand how the program functions and what it will take to replicate such a program in other contexts.
UA: What impact do you hope to make?
NEPI: We hope to create safer communities for everyone by having 2,500 high-risk youth reintegrated in Monrovia by 2025; we will reduce anti-social behavior by approximately 0.25 standard deviations, and reduce crime and violence by 20 – 50%. Finally, we want to incorporate the STYL model into youth policies and seek bilateral, and multilateral agencies to fund the scale-up of the model.
UA: Looking ahead to next year, what are you hopeful about?
NEPI: I am hopeful for the relaunch of the replication of the STYL model in the most high-risk neighborhoods in Liberia to reduce crime and violence.
Link to full step-by-step moonshot policy proposal coming soon.