All Stars Project – Operation Cops and Kids
Violence prevention is a proactive healthcare strategy that seeks to keep people out of the medical system by stopping violence at its roots. One often-overlooked violence prevention strategy is to work to lessen tensions between law enforcement and young people in urban areas.
![Make the Road Support Group](https://hfnj.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/All-Stars-Operation-Conversation-Cops-Kids-workshop.jpg")
That’s why HFNJ has provided a total of $150,000 over a series of four grants from 2017-2023 to support the All Stars Project of New Jersey’s innovative Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids. This unique performance-based police / community relations program utilizes group improvised performance and honest conversation between young people and police officers to create new relationships that translate to improved outcomes on the streets.
Facilitated by both a social worker and performance coach, each 90-minute workshop brings together ten young people and ten police officers to perform in improvised scenes using imaginary circumstances as an ice-breaker. After the performances, the young people and police officers participate in deep conversation about the realities of life on the streets, traumas they’ve experienced in their home and work, and what they see in the media. Surveys from the workshops show that nearly all attendees experience a positive change in attitude by the end of each workshop.
Most recently, HFNJ’s grant funding has supported All Stars Project in creating a train the trainer model for the program – training eight Newark Police Department supervisors on All Star’s methodologies for improving community relations, which the supervisors then provide to other officers. To date, approximately one thousand NPD officers have been trained through this program.
As the program has taken root in Newark due to HFNJ’s funding, community leaders have noticed the impact. In 2023, All Stars Project received its largest-ever grant from the City of Newark to support this work – ensuring that future generations will continue to be impacted by HFNJ’s support and lowering tensions between youth and the police who patrol the community.