‘No one wants to be out on the corner every day.’ Community leaders work in Baltimore’s violence intervention program to attract participants.

Pastor Marvin McKenstry Jr. waited for more than an hour at his West Baltimore church, but the young man he was supposed to meet did not show. “He was spinning us for a minute,” recalled McKenstry of the young man who told them he was waiting for a Lyft ride at first but never made it to the church. McKenstry, who is pastor of the Victory House Worship Center, decided to go find the man in Penn North. McKenstry and two outreach workers from the nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs met with the man to encourage him not to engage in violence and instead to participate in the city’s violence intervention program, known as the Group Violence Reduction Strategy.