Racine is getting a first-of-her-kind ‘Violence Interrupter’ | Local News

For Nakeyda Haymer, those words are triggers. They set off alarm bells. “They may be thinking about violence,” about seeking and carrying out revenge violently. Haymer has made it her role to be an interrupter in those moments. To break up negative, potentially dangerous, thoughts.

“When we look at the science, we see that sticky solutions work best,” Thomas Abt, a Harvard-educated former public school teacher and ex-prosecutor considered a national leader in violence reduction research, said in a 2020 TED Talk. “To put it bluntly, you can’t stop shootings if you won’t deal with shooters. And you can’t stop killings, if you won’t go where people won’t go.”

Haymer is willing to go where the killings happen.

She knows how to intervene and to talk to those freshly traumatized because she’s gone through it. Her big brother was murdered in 2017. She remembers the anger. The sadness. The feeling like she needed to do something even when there was nothing that could be done. Her brother was gone.

“If that trauma or those thoughts are left with nothing positive to follow them, he (the 23-year-old) may have people who come and confirm those negative things,” Haymer said. “So I want to be the one to intervene right now and tell him: ‘That’s not the way. I’ve been there. I’ve experienced those things. But, instead of going that way, I chose to do this instead to honor my brother. That’s why I’m before you today.’ I’m letting him know: because I did the right thing I’m here talking to you; if I had done the wrong thing, my family would have lost me.”

Right now, she volunteers through the nonprofit Voices of Black Mothers United by actually responding to scenes of crisis — like shootings — and finding the loved ones of those hurt. That’s how he came to connect with the 23-year-old whose brother was shot.

When she gets a call or sees on Facebook there was a shooting in Racine, she goes to the block where it happens. She finds the family. She tries to be the first person to support them, before someone who might encourage revenge can plant a bad idea in their ears.

Haymer can stop someone from committing a shooting before they even pick up a gun. She’s a “violence interrupter,” said Hope Otto, Racine County human services director.

Racine County government has formalized a full-time, first-of-its-kind position inspired by Haymer’s work and based on Abt’s research.

Haymer is a frontrunner to be hired as the county’s first Violent Crime Reduction Coordinator.

Haymer came to Racine 10 years ago.

A native of Michigan, she got an associate degree in applied science with a criminal justice focus from Baker College of Muskegon. But upon graduation, Michigan’s Department of Corrections wasn’t hiring, so she looked elsewhere and was hired in Racine County.

She now works as a re-entry coach for young people, ages 18-24, exiting incarceration.

Her first public foray into anti-violence advocacy came in December when she organized a lunch at The DeKoven Center in Racine for 11 area families affected by violence. Soon after, she got involved with Voices of Black Mothers United, connecting even more with other families affected by violence.

One of the messages she makes sure to share with the loved ones of someone hurt immediately after the tragedy is “We’re here to hold your hand through this.”

Haymer is now the state director for VBMU in Wisconsin. The nonprofit works closely with law enforcement, local governments and other groups to prevent violence locally.

After the initial intervention, follow-ups through home visits, group prayer and other peace-focused connections can be made. The goal of VBMU volunteers like Haymer is to “Show them how (to heal). We know they’re in a dark time right now, we were there as well, but we found hope and we found healing. And that was through coming together, and being there for other people in those times.”

On July 26, the Racine County Board officially approved the new Violent Crime Reduction Coordinator position, with $79,727 in funding being set aside for what is being referred to as “a new project for Voices of Black Mothers (United)” underneath the county’s Human Services Department. While Voices of Black Mothers United has a presence in 23 states, this position will be the first of its kind.

“Racine County is the leading model right now,” Haymer said.

The goal of the violent crime reduction coordinator is “addressing the increase in community gun violence,” Otto said.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said that Abt’s 2019 book “Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence — and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets” has been a major inspiration for the new initiative, in addition to Haymer’s self-started volunteering.

One of the violence models described in “Bleeding Out” is having people with “lived experience” — like Haymer — perform “interventions on the spot, during crisis,” Otto said, “… (to) help to prevent the retaliation for future violence.”