Yakima, Washington | cpcocw.org/walk-about-yakima
1. Who does your organization serve and where? Are there particular populations or communities that are a primary focus of your work?
Walk About Yakima serves gang-involved youth and young adults in Yakima who are at high risk of killing or being killed by firearm violence. Their primary focus is young men between the ages of 13 and 24; approximately 80% identify as Hispanic or Latino, and nearly all have been impacted by the criminal legal system.
2. Can you tell us about some of the work your organization is doing related to gun violence prevention, intervention, and/or healing?
The foundation of Walk About Yakima’s intervention work is credible mentoring. Staff mentors are highly trained and bring lived experience with the challenges their mentees face. Mentors build trusting, supportive relationships utilizing restorative circles and dialectical behavior therapy to promote healing, reduce impulsivity, and teach emotional regulation and better decision-making. Walk About Yakima also provides direct logistical and financial support for basic needs — helping mentees pursue education and employment, secure stable housing, obtain driver’s licenses, and participate in life-enriching activities. Over the course of their participation, most mentees report improvements in self-efficacy, stronger coping mechanisms, and a reduced sense of need to carry a firearm.
3. What has been your organization’s biggest accomplishment to date?
With support from the C-FIP team, Walk About Yakima has refined its theory of change and intervention model over the past five years, providing effective, evidence-informed support to more than 130 young people. The organization is now entering a teaching phase — developing training for other organizations with the goal of further reducing firearm violence rates in Yakima and beyond.