Every engagement, program, or activity with the brothers is an opportunity for an intentional engagement to explore this relationship between thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Our programs fall under two headings. Legacy Links works specifically with returning citizens, and Legacy Builders works with those already in the community. Our engagement with the young men is eighteen to twenty-four months in total. At the end of that engagement, the primary goal is to reduce recidivism and have our brothers gainfully employed or enrolled in an educational pursuit.
Successful Re-entry starts while you are still behind the wall.
Legacy Links is a re-entry program for Black and Latino males who are 18+ reentering the community from incarceration. We start working with participants while inside the Worcester House of Corrections. We utilize a combination of assessments to collaborate with our participants to develop a participant-directed service plan. The service plan is to support a successful re-entry back into the community.
Legacy Builders is the primary intervention method for at-risk individuals used by Legendary Legacies. The model consists of a series of rites of passage meant to provide participants with powerful development experiences, which can replace some of the gang and violence-associated rites of passage that Legendary Legacies is looking to alleviate.
By replacing criminal or violent rites of passage with positive experiences, the Legacy Builders Program is a community of brothers focused on pursuing positive life outcomes for all participants.
The Crisis Response Team (CRT) builds relationships with young people, families, and neighborhoods to communicate that they are supported and valued before violent incidents—as an ongoing, necessary activity—and promotes healing in the aftermath of violence when prevention and intervention efforts fall short
The team also builds robust communication structures with police, hospitals, and community partners to ensure timely and appropriate responses to intervene in conflicts to prevent retaliatory gun and knife violence.
The Safe and Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) is a state-funded, community-based secondary violence prevention program that launched in 2011 that is now in 13 Massachusetts cities to address serious youth violence, particularly gun violence.
SSYI is a comprehensive public health approach that does not rely on suppression, arrest, or incarceration of young men who have already committed a gun- or gang-related crime or have been a victim of such crime. Instead, the program offers an array of services—including case management, outreach, and direct services —to young men ages 17 to 24 who are believed to be at “proven risk” for becoming involved in firearm violence.
Restorative Justice Circles (RJ) is a partnership between Legendary Legacies and Worcester Public Schools providing a unique opportunity for collaboration to create a safe space that allows for group mentoring and healing practices. Legendary Legacies hosts weekly restorative circles 60 – 90 minutes after school and weekly debriefing sessions for the remainder of the school year for struggling students who fit our target population, ages 16 and above.
RJ circles is a space that positively influences students’ personal and professional development.
The research on fathering is indisputable: Fathers have a crucial role to play in the cognitive, social, and emotional development of their children. An involved father is one who is engaged, available, and responsible.
A positively engaged father is sensitive and supportive, nurturing and affectionate, and comforting and accepting.
Hoop Dreams is a recreational program that LL facilitates through groups and an open gym. This program begins with engaging participants in intentional dialogue centered around current events, locally, nationally, and specific obstacles that participants may be currently facing.
