Programs

Laws don't heal neighborhoods. People do.

Our programs train leaders, interrupt violence and change civic culture from the ground up, across Connecticut.

Credible Messenger
Leadership Academy
Cultural Abolition
Civic education
In the neighborhoods

Credible Messenger graduates holding certificates at CT State Community College — Credible Messenger graduates at CT State Community College, Capital campus.

Training

Hartford and statewide

We train Hartford residents who have lived through the criminal legal system to mentor, and step in for, the people at highest risk of gun violence. The work is grounded in restorative justice, and it's funded by the city's Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative.

What you learn

Crisis intervention
Conflict resolution and de-escalation
Motivational interviewing
Emotional intelligence
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Mental Health First Aid

Ask about the next cohort

VideoCredible Messenger information session

Captions: YouTube automatic captions. Watch on YouTube

A group of FCC members pose together outdoors at dusk — FCC members and friends.

Advanced training with Quinnipiac University for graduates of our foundational program. It focuses on systems change, coalition-building and community violence intervention across Connecticut.

An FCC leader presents a workshop in a wood-paneled hall — A Cultural Abolition workshop.

Our own framework for community healing. It looks at the stories, habits and normalized harms that keep mass incarceration alive, and asks communities to take those apart along with the laws. James Jeter leads workshops at colleges, community groups and civic events.

Civic education and voter registration

Rights only matter if people know they have them

Community college workshops

Funded by the CT Health Foundation. Students learn their voting rights and how disenfranchisement laws shut out directly impacted residents.
Registration inside facilities

With the Secretary of the State and the Department of Correction since September 2024, so eligible residents are registered before they walk out.
Civic Allyship Initiative

Founded in August 2020 at Dwight Hall, Yale. Yale students and directly impacted organizers work side by side on civic education and voter engagement.

In the neighborhoods

Where the work is

Men standing in front of a Saving Our Youth, Stop the Violence banner in Waterbury — Saving Our Youth, Waterbury.

Three men stand in front of an exhibit titled Reconstruction — Members at an exhibit on Reconstruction, the era when Black Americans first won the vote and then had it taken away.

Three men in conversation in front of a CT State Community College backdrop — At CT State Community College, Capital campus.

Credible Messenger Mentor Program

What you learn

Credible Messenger Leadership Academy

Cultural Abolition

Community college workshops

Registration inside facilities

Civic Allyship Initiative

Saving Our Youth, Waterbury