By Mekhi Abbott
Special to the AFRO

“When people ask where our office is– I tell them the streets,” says Devan Martin-Bey.

Martin-Bey is a “violence interrupter” for the P.E.A.C.E Team, a community violence intervention group that specializes in conflict resolution and bridging the Baltimore community together with the resources that many of its Black residents lack. 

Founded by Eric Brown Sr. four years ago, The P.E.A.C.E Team focuses its efforts on Black males under the age of 24 living in Baltimore City, as they are “at high risk” of being victims or perpetrators of violence. According to the team website, their mission statement is to “liberate Baltimore City residents from poverty, crime and violence through education, mediation and community organizing.”

The violence interrupters serve as mediators, mentors and overseers of the Greater Baltimore community. They work with the residents of Baltimore on a daily basis, trying to reduce youth crime and violence against youths. 

Brown founded the P.E.A.C.E Team  when he was finishing up his sentence after being incarcerated. He offers Baltimore youth access to resources that he didn’t have when he was growing up in the city, such as mentorship and proper role models.

 He recalls having the feeling that he had thrown his life away getting in trouble with the law, and he is making it his mission to ensure that those coming up in similar circumstances won’t make the same mistakes that he made. 

Martin-Bey, alongside other violence interrupters of P.E.A.C.E., literally tie lawn chairs to a street sign on the intersection of Dolphin and Division street. They parole the area from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Every morning, they do wellness checks, walks on the area perimeters they cover to make sure everything is OK.

They travel with Narcan, a narcotic used to treat opioid overdoses, and water to assist those in need of help.

“We keep the community clean. We make sure we have good relationships with everyone, and we just try to keep stuff level. There’s a lot of good people around here, you just have to get to know them,” said Druid Heights Violence Interrupter Herbert “Scrap” Daney. 

“We’re actually getting people to talk. In Baltimore, people don’t speak. Generally, they just go about their business and keep their heads down. Now, when they see our faces, they speak. That’s a good thing, because when you see little changes, you start to see big changes,” said fellow Violence Interrupter Perry Richards. 

The relationship between the Black community and law enforcement has long been a tricky one, but the P.E.A.C.E Team has been able to find ways to mediate and intervene without citizens feeling like they are being neglected or targeted. 

“We’ve found that a lot of other organizations have made residents feel like they are occupying forces as opposed to actually engaging with the community. , they come in when something happens and just leave,” said Martin-Bey.

Every calendar year, the P.E.A.C.E Team organizes at least six community building events. They aid with assisting residents in being able to get identification, Social Security information and other basic essentials that most people take for granted, but not everyone has access to.

They also help with job readiness and training. They attribute a lot of their success to their partnership with the University of Maryland.

“Everything that we do, for the most part, the University of Maryland is tied to… They are one of our main contributors,” said Martin-Bey. 

Due to their work in the community, the P.E.A.C.E Team received $1.5 million in December 2022 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, to implement and expand efforts to ease community-based violence. They also have an office on the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s campus. 

Research has also shown that the P.E.A.C.E Team played a part in murder reports on York Road going from eight in 2020 down to zero by 2022. A lot of this can be attributed to the P.E.A.C.E Team’s ability to relate to the community they are working with. In Druid Heights, they have about 10 total violence interrupters. 

Martin- Bey says these days, men from around the community remind him of his purpose with the stories of how he and the violence interrupters changed their lives. 

“I get a lot of ‘Man, if it wasn’t for you, bro– if it wasn’t for y’all…I’m telling you,’ ” said Martin-Bey, of the testimonies that could easily be stories of lives lost and wasted. “That’s how I know we’re making a difference.”

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