Roca, Inc.

We've got Rewire CBT on the brain at this year's Annual Breakfast event. Join us on May 2 for an inside look at the cognitive behavioral skills that can save young people's lives. When you buy a ticket, you help make their transformation possible. Learn more and RSVP: https://hubs.la/Q03brD1y0

Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, asks this question: "If we have 400 million guns in America and they're not going anywhere anytime soon, then how do we get people to be less willing to use guns against one another?" Many violent crimes are impulsive, not rational. That's why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is catching on as an answer to that question at programs across the country. A recent study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab found that young people who received CBT from Chicago's Choose to Change program were nearly 40% less likely to be arrested for a violent crime. At Roca's we're seeing the same pattern with our non-clinical Rewire CBT. https://hubs.la/Q03bjNXb0

This year, 13 young men put on a cap and gown to celebrate making it all the way from the center of Baltimore's violence to their Roca graduation. A couple of the guys cracked jokes about not knowing what to think the first time their Youth Workers reached out to them. They've come a long way since then, and we're so proud! #CongratsGrads #Transformation #RocaBaltimore

Breaking: Rolling Stone covers CEO's work in advocating for the Reentry Assistance Bill (A.1.93), introduced by Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs, to provide $425/month for six months to help people secure jobs, housing, and stability after returning home from incarceration. Stay tuned as we head to Albany on March 4 to push for policies that truly support successful reentry in New York. People deserve real resources and opportunities in order to thrive. Read the full article: https://ceolink.co/4hUSD8Z

Urban violence looks a little different in every community, but across the board, the "[p]rograms found to be promising in reducing violence tend to be ones that also change the way people think and behave, and present them with different opportunities and social networks". WTTW/Chicago PBS compared Roca's approach to our partner in the work Cure Violence Global as well as Brooklyn based Save Our Streets and YouthBuild Global to find the common threads that make community violence intervention so effective. https://hubs.la/Q037b6vG0

On a cold February day in Baltimore, advocates including Roca's own Andrea Harrison gathered outside First & Franklin Presbyterian Church to publicly remember the city’s 2024 homicide victims. Rev. Mark Phillips called the ceremony a "sign of our commitment to working, praying to bring about an end to gun violence in the city of Baltimore, and also as a sign that the lives lost were people loved by their families, friends. They’re more than just a number. That they were an individual, and it’s our way of, hopefully, remembering them in a very real way.” https://hubs.la/Q036W1r00

For a closer look at what makes Roca tick, listen to this recent piece on NPR Baltimore. The interview went deep with Roca Baltimore leaders Gooch Jones, Anisha Thomas, and DeAndre Gordon, touching on everything from how young men get caught up in violence, to how we get them out of crisis mode and into the change process, and much more. https://hubs.la/Q035KqWL0

Roca Hartford young women celebrated Galentine’s Day talking about self love and learning the art of cake decorating, which their children thoroughly enjoyed tasting!

In honor of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Roca Hartford screened the documentary In Plain Sight: Stories of Hope and Freedom. Through first-hand interviews with victims of human trafficking and their advocates, In Plain Site dives deep into the fight against sex trafficking across the country. IMDB: https://hubs.la/Q035jRvh0