Birmingham’s RESTORE program saves lives, reduces youth violence. Here’s how

In 2022, 83% of perpetrators, up to age 22, charged with murder or attempted murder in Jefferson County were at some point involved in family court.

And 69% of homicide victims ages 13-22 years old also had prior family court involvement, according to the Jefferson County Family Resource Center.

Then the RESTORE program was enacted. Evidence suggests it has made a difference.

Since the RESTORE program's inception in 2023 , the number of Jefferson County youth ages 13-22 years old who were charged with murder decreased by 80%, and homicide victims in the same age group dropped by 61%.

In one year, the RESTORE program, a Birmingham-based reentry program, served 249 youth. From January to June 2024, 780 children and teens attended RESTORE workshops to talk about goal setting, accountability, healthy relationships, conflict resolution and how to express their emotions. And 703 services were rendered to participants and their families, including transportation, clothing, food, housing, education and employment, mental health and medication assistance.

"We're saving lives," Antski Williams, RESTORE program manager, said. "That helps us work on prevention because for two hours, twice a week, every week, they are able to put down their street beef until they change the politics in the street. That means that they're not out there dying or killing. We touch their lives everyday. We're restoring lives, restoring communities. That's a life saved."

RESTORE is a partnership with the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County Family Court, Jefferson County Family Resource Center and Jefferson County Juvenile Detention Center. Birmingham City Council approved nearly $2 million in federal funding to expand the RESTORE program.

In September, RESTORE received $250,000 from the city of Birmingham to continue supporting the program's efforts.

The additional funds, Buntain said, will allow the program to serve more children by lowering the eligibility age from 16-19 years old to 11-19 years old. Of the more than 200 participants, 118 were community referrals.

Williams said the RESTORE program helps to prevent future violence by seeing, first hand, what gaps in the community need to be filled.

"The community referrals was really a beautiful thing, because now you don't have to be justice impacted to get the services you need," Williams said.

Buntain said some youth who have been released from the detention center ask to continue attending the RESTORE workshops.

Williams leads the workshops for the young men in the program, and before the class starts, he invites them to stand up and recite a pledge: "I stand on man business. I stand on self discipline. I stand on self respect. I stand on self accountability. I stand on self control. I stand on self observation. I stand on man business."

"That centers everyone on why we are here, and we get down to business after that," Williams said.

"It's being able to untangle the wires in their head. They get a lot of mixed messages, about what love, loyalty and the culture is supposed to look like. If we don't change their minds, then we just enable them with the resources."

Arnetta Spencer, program coordinator, often talks to the young women in the program about setting long and short term goals. One of the RESTORE participants she works with, who has had a particularly rough past, dreams of becoming a real estate agent.

During workshops, Spencer works with the teens to help them understand what steps they need to take to reach their dreams. Sometimes that means helping a teen apply for their ID and other documents. Other times that means arranging transportation to and from job interviews.

"They've been through so much trauma, and they want people to listen instead of talk at them and tell them what to do," Spencer said.

"Whatever they want to do, we want to encourage them. We don't want them to think that just because they've been in the system, they can't accomplish their dreams. And now, they're calling us, telling us what they want to do and asking us how we can help," Spencer said. "The fact that we can just help a few kids, God, it's just amazing."

The program not only helps children. Program coordinators also work with the families to ensure they have the resources they need to thrive including parenting classes, workforce opportunities and educational development programs.

"When parents do better, kids do better. Supporting them and addressing the needs and the issues going on with the adults will always benefit the others in the household," Valerie Delgado, RESTORE assistant director, said.

'Violence is everywhere'

Stephanie Hawkins, vice president of the Transformative Research Unit for Equity at RTI International , a nonprofit research organization, said the juvenile justice system can alter life trajectories and have negative impacts on a young person's mental health.

"It can then frame for them what their possibilities are. It interrupts what we would consider a normal developmental trajectory, and if your developmental trajectory is now inclusive of being detained in a juvenile system, it might change how you think about what your life outcomes are."

Many teens and young adults who are justice impacted, Hawkins said, often also struggle with food and housing insecurity, experience community violence or are impacted by poverty and lack of social services.

"There is grief, trauma, challenges that exist when you live in a community that doesn't have a lot of resources," Hawkins said. "A lot of the externalizing behaviors, the mental health challenges that young people were navigating, sometimes were about the context in which they lived."

Hawkins has worked with young people in juvenile detention and has a 27-year career researching community violence and child development.

"Having worked with these young people in different facilities, they are no different than young kids that I might chat with in schools. They have the same dreams, hopes that other kids do," Hawkins said.

As gun violence grows across the state and in the Birmingham metro, firearms remain the leading cause of death for Alabama children and teens . And many young people are impacted by the death and injury of people they love.

There have been 135 homicides in Birmingham city limits so far, including 10 justifiable deaths. Of the people killed, eight were children, with the youngest being 5-year-old Landyn Brooks . The other seven children's names are, Aston Starkey , 13, Markell Sanders , 15; Prentice Lovell Little , 15; Cornelia Rose Lathan , 15; Jaylin Lee Jenkins , 16; Jaquavius James Weston , 18; and Jonathan O'Dell Thomas Jr. , 18. Many other children also have been injured in shootings .

"When young people have to navigate life with the reality that their family member, friend is potentially going to die from violence...that trauma and grief is really profound and sometimes not tended to, so making sure that there is a trauma informed, culturally responsive approach on top of structural changes is important," Hawkins said.

In March, RESTORE program coordinators surveyed 11-15 year olds to understand what their concerns were.

When asked to describe violence in their community, their responses were similar. "Violence is everywhere," one participant said. "You cannot avoid violence," another responded. One recounted that in their neighborhood, they experienced, "repeated, nonstop gunfire and no response from police or fire/rescue."

When asked what survival looked like, their responses varied. "Staying in the house, not going outside, and minding your business," some responded. "Getting out of Birmingham," another said.

"The amount of trauma that we are talking about, we are seeing a huge shift in coping, in trauma, in anger," Buntain said.

When asked what could be done to stop gun violence in their communities some said bringing back permit carry laws and increasing access to therapy and counseling.

How can we stop the violence: 'Embrace the long game'

While RESTORE helps to fill the gaps left by community violence and poverty that many of the children and teens they work with face, Buntain said additional investments in structural and systemic changes are necessary to help juvenile justice impacted youth after they leave a workshop.

"We need services that let kids be kids," Buntain said.

Experts say investment in violence intervention programs, schools, transportation, clean water, job opportunities, mental health resources and supportive services are vital to making positive changes.

Hawkins praised programs like the RESTORE initiative for including family support and long-term structural solutions.

"Effective violence prevention efforts require us to embrace the long game. What I did love about the RESTORE program was that it was inclusive of the family, it provides transportation, food, essentials. And I think those are really the right types of interventions," Hawkins said.