There’s no business like show business, except gun violence prevention. Last week, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) held a graduation ceremony and rough cut screening for the Brownsville-based Flip the Script cohort as they ready their project “Click” for film festival consideration.
The program pays young New Yorkers $20 an hour for a filmmaking apprenticeship while working with mentors to unlearn behaviors fueling gun violence in one of the city’s “hotspot” neighborhoods. “It was a culmination of the work of the young people,” said MOCJ director Deanna Logan. “It was giving them their certificates and their flowers because they’d actually accomplished what we set out to do.”
Twelve young adult participants from Brownsville make up the “Flip the Script village” including Angel Aguilar who handled the sound and played a supporting role in the film. He learned about the program from a friend and says the experience motivates him to develop professionally.
“The schools over here [are] not that good,” said Aguilar over the phone. “The program itself is really something, it’s really good. It’s something to keep the youth out the hood even if it’s for three days or three hours.”
While he always enjoyed watching movies, Aguilar never planned on working on one. He still does not know if he can get a foot into the industry, but would love the idea to pursue a career in film.
Samantha Kleinfield, executive director of Community Innovations at MOCJ, says designing programs like Flip the Script involve working alongside the community.
“Public safety isn’t just about policing,” she said. “It’s about creating these spaces, whether [or not] for Flip the Script for young people to heal and then be able to tap into their untapped wisdom and build these skills and then harness their power and agency to be seen as more than just their worst decision or worst moment in life.”
Kleinfield says there is a “clear move away from risk prone behaviors and towards self actualization” among participants since the current Flip the Script cohort started. She credits a social-emotional curriculum implemented in the first months, allowing the class to genuinely bond, including those involved in rival gangs.
Future screenings will include both a public and private premiere of “Click.” “The idea is having a red carpet premiere in a movie theater so the kids can see themselves on the big screen,” said Kleinfield.
Flip the Script marks just one MOCJ initiative tying in professional development with crime prevention. On June 25, 19 people with former criminal justice involvement graduated a reentry training program for their commercial driving licenses.
“This is an outcome in which we all win: our graduates, our economy, and society at large,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a statement. “We cannot expect people to reintegrate into society if we do not provide them with the means and opportunity to earn a decent living. That is exactly what our CDL program does, and that’s exactly why we will be expanding it next year.”
100% of the graduating class found jobs with a salary range between $80,000 and $125,000. The program tackles financial stability for those with conviction records, which is known to dramatically decrease recidivism, while addressing an existing labor shortage.
“[In] our initial recruitment, we decided to focus and first start with participants we have in our transitional housing program in the spirit of providing holistic and wraparound services,” said Kleinfield. “Whether they have a work requirement or not, but [we know] that at least 60% of individuals within the first year are released from jail or prison are unemployed. We are trying to provide not just a pathway to a well-paying viable career, but also a pathway to permanent housing.”