The One Second Collaborative is a coordinated effort to disrupt the cycle of youth gun violence in Tarrant County. We’re creating a network of organizations providing a wide variety of services by equipping organizations with financial support and tools to track the impact they’re making as individual organizations, but more importantly, as a collaborative offering wrap-around services to those in need.
An initial investment of $2.1 million was awarded to the following 18 organizations working to reduce youth gun violence.
OSC Funded Organizations
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County
The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County enables youth to reach their full potential. Their Keystone Club is a teen character and leadership program that develops good character through social-emotional development and positive leadership skills in a youth-led small group setting. These groups are supervised by a designated staff person.
Learn more: bgcgtc.org
Building Pathways
Building Pathways actively works to deter youth gun violence through comprehensive programming focused on mentorship and career development. Pathway coaches work with clients to build trust, accountability and deepen understanding of their individual backgrounds. Through peer-to-peer meetings and community engagement Building Pathways aims to foster skills, build self-confidence and offer an alternative to violence.
Learn more: https://buildingpathway.org/
Communities in Schools
Communities in Schools, Greater Tarrant County’s mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Program Managers and Mental Health Counselors have the expertise to respond to a variety of student needs which manifest from a myriad of external situations that students bring with them into the classroom, including gun violence. Students lean on these responsible and trustworthy adults to help them navigate negative experiences and create solutions that lead to a better quality of life. This is achieved with one-on-one interactions, counseling sessions and goal setting. Group Sessions at lunch provide students with opportunities to address various topics including gun violence.
Learn more: https://www.cistarrant.org/
Community Frontline
Since its inception in 2017, Community Frontline has been relentlessly tackling teen gun violence through a multi-faceted approach that fosters social connections, builds skills, and creates safe spaces for young people. Community Frontline believes that by addressing the root causes of violence and empowering individuals, they can create a safer and more vibrant community for all. Their core programs directly address teen gun violence through mentoring initiatives, violence interruption courses, and engaging in open dialogue with young men who have been impacted by gun violence, fostering understanding and promoting healing. By creating safe spaces, fostering positive relationships, and equipping individuals with valuable skills, Community Frontline’s comprehensive approach tackles teen gun violence from multiple angles.
Learn more: www.communityfrontline.com
Empathy HQ
EmpathyHQ (formerly Alliance Child & Family Solutions) exists with the mission to provide life-changing mental health services with a focus on vulnerable populations, such as communities impacted by gun violence. Their program provides individual counseling to at-risk youth and young adults to reduce negative mental health symptoms or behavioral issues.
Learn more: https://www.empathyhq.org
Fort Worth Connect
Fort Worth Connect’s Let’s Connect Internship, a student empowerment high school-based internship program, developed by the Let’s Connect Youth Collaborative, aims to suppress youth gun violence in Fort Worth, Texas, specifically targeting the area codes 76112, 76119, and 76105. This comprehensive program focuses on strategic coordinated activities, programs and initiatives to address teen gun violence in the community. The program consists of various components designed to empower high school students, provide positive personal development opportunities and foster community engagement.
Journey4Ward
Journey4ward offers free trauma counseling and support services to victims of crime and at-risk youth ages 6 years and older, as well as gun violence prevention programs that are offered to youth to help decrease the impulses that drive teens to settle disputes with guns. Both programs help to heal psychological wounds that gun violence leaves behind, provide mental health and trauma support for youth and families and are a demonstrated means of reducing gun violence. The Voices Without Violence Youth program provides character-building activities, engages youth in peer-to-peer conversations about gun violence, and teaches strategies to rethink situations, bullying, and how to be a voice to prevent gun violence. Journey4ward intends to provide support for those impacted by gun violence with counseling, crisis intervention, and effective gun violence prevention programs.
Learn more: https://www.journey4ward.org
LVTRise
LVTRise is dedicated to collaborating with community partners, empowering residents through training and case management, and impacting the Las Vegas Trail community by addressing education, improving access to quality housing, confronting food insecurity, and reducing neighborhood crime. LVTRise’s services and programs are designed and influenced by the community to best support their goals. LVTRise works alongside residents in the LVT area and gets ongoing feedback by surveying the community throughout the year. They are a partner, a facilitator, and a convenor for the many services designed to support residents on their paths to success. Each person deserves access to resources and assistance to alleviate disparities in their community.
Learn more: https://www.lvtrise.org
Mothers of Murdered Angels
Mothers of Murdered Angels has a positive impact on parents, students, and their understanding of critical issues due to gun violence. MOMA holds various events for communities and schools to show how our neighborhoods are being affected by gun violence. MOMA is a vendor for FWISD schools and a certified first responder for counseling.
Learn more: https://www.momangels.org
One Safe Place
One Safe Place is a comprehensive crime prevention agency devoted to preventing crime and violence in Tarrant County’s neighborhoods, schools and homes. Project Safe @ Home focuses on domestic violence response for 100 individuals. Trained advocates identify and address trauma in children exposed to domestic violence. Advocates provide danger assessments, safety planning, and service coordination for victims and their children. Basic emergency financial assistance is also offered. Services are available to all Tarrant County residents, with a focus on ZIP codes with higher rates of youth gun injuries. Partnerships with schools, churches, and nonprofit organizations enable identification of domestic violence cases and provide safe locations for service delivery or services are offered at One Safe Place’s main location in Fort Worth. The goal is to prevent youth gun violence and provide comprehensive support for those impacted by domestic violence.
Learn more: https://www.onesafeplace.org
Recovery Resource Council
Recovery Resource Council has provided evidence-based prevention programs for youth in Tarrant County for more than 35 years. Me and My Safe Community provides school-based prevention curriculums, one-on-one adolescent counseling services, and referrals to substance use treatment and mental health services as needed. All activities focus on drug abuse education, life skills, as well as communication and relationship-building skills aimed at reducing drug use, teen gun violence, and other high-risk behaviors.
Learn more: https://www.recoverycouncil.org
Seasons of Change
Seasons of Change offers programs designed to create pathways out of poverty. Since its inception in 2010, Seasons of Change Community Changers Program has served more than a half million at-risk youth and families in North Texas, providing a public health approach to gun violence prevention that addresses the unique needs of the youth and communities they serve from the inside out. Seasons of Change is a model community nonprofit organization in Tarrant County. The CCP Youth Adult Council will engage youth, parents, and stakeholders to act as a link between target youth.
Learn more: https://www.seasonsofchangeinc.com
Strategies to Elevate People of Color
Strategies to Elevate People of Color actively works to help young people succeed and excel from school to college and/or career. Strategies to Elevate People of Color helps youth identify and address their needs through a wholistic approach. Currently, STEP facilitates a violence prevention curriculum in Fort Worth Independent School District.
Survive and Thrive Education
Survive and Thrive is targeting the population of young people who are the most likely to be involved in violent, gun-related behavior. By targeting these young men who are the most likely to be in violent situations, Strive and Thrive is hoping they learn other ways to address their disputes both with adults as well as their peers. Survive and Thrive partners with four organizations that specialize in conflict resolution and intervention.
Learn more: https://www.surviveandthriveed.com
Violence Intervention and Prevention - Fort Worth
Violence Intervention and Prevention Fort Worth (VIPFW) is dedicated to ending cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in Fort Worth neighborhoods by investing in the development, health, and wellbeing of those at the center of the crisis. VIPFW deals with young men from the age of 11-29 with a focus on gang intervention and prevention in areas that are known as shooting hotspot in the city of Fort Worth. VIPFW is an evidence-based program modeled after Advance Peace in Northern California. VIPFW offers the following resources for its participants: life-skills classes, trauma and resilience classes, de-escalation, conflict resolution, high school equivalency test, job placement, mental health counseling and drug counseling.
Learn more: https://www.vipfortworth.org
Volunteers of America
Volunteers of America is working to deliver the Strengthening Families and Positive Action youth prevention programs, 100 stand-alone gun violence prevention sessions and 100 wholesome activities for Tarrant County adolescents. The sessions are based on 10 critical signs of violence developed by Sandy Hook Promise. These programs serve at least 1,000 youth and 50 parents, building key protective factors: parental resilience, social connections, parenting skills, concrete support in times of need, and social and emotional competence in children. VOA also breaks down barriers to participation by providing basic needs assistance and incentives for participation.
Learn more: https://www.voatx.org
YMCA of Metro Fort Worth
The YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth is a nonprofit organization with over 130 years’ experience addressing critical issues in Tarrant County. Youth Development is a principal element of Vision 2025, and they address teen gun violence with several programs. Project 505 is the YMCA’s effort to provide a safe space for the youth to avoid negative influences, engage with positive role models and peers, and develop professional and social skills during the most vulnerable hours for gun violence.
Learn more: https://www.ymcafw.org
Youth Advocacy Program
YAP is a nationally recognized nonprofit providing communities with outcomes-driven and cost-effective alternatives to youth/young adult incarceration and out-of-home placement. YAP staff provide personalized, intensive community-based wraparound and mentoring services to empower those at highest risk of violence involvement ages 14-25 to transform their behavior. The core YAPWrap model is based on a three-pronged approach including: 1) wraparound team-based planning process; 2) relationship with caring, trained adults from the community who provide services when and where they are needed; and 3) meaningful community connections.
Learn more: https://www.yapinc.org
