Brooklyn Park’s Community Intervention Unit Uses Teamwork to Improve Lives
The staff members who work for Brooklyn Park’s Community Intervention Unit spend a lot of their days checking in with business owners, residents, and others who help form their network in the growing northwest metro suburb.
“In my opinion the common goal is to build a safe community, and to help the youth stay out of the streets, out of trouble,” said Yaraily Castillo-Rosario, the community incident intervention specialist. “When we do build that relationship with them, they have the opportunity to talk to us and have them understand what it means to have someone intervene in a positive way.”
One of the members of Brooklyn Park’s Community Intervention Unit talks with a liquor store owner in the city.
The unit began work as part of the Brooklyn Park Police Department earlier this year, and is still hiring staff members. Representatives work in the community to build connections and try to find families that may need help finding resources and access to services–all of which could, ultimately, reduce crime.
“The people that are out in the streets that we are trying to intervene with are the same people that are usually on the case load with the case manager, as well,” said Castillo-Rosario.
The case manager, in most cases, is Khadija Frazier.
“I go off the referrals that’s sent to me,” said Frazier. “I just do a really deep dive into what the youth needs, and try to figure out their barriers that they are experiencing and how to overcome those barriers.”
Those referrals can also come through Julia Brysky’s office. The community intervention data analyst takes in information from police incident and case reports and looks for patterns among individuals in the community.
“Whether if they’re stealing a car, or if they’re shoplifting, kind of like, what’s going on? Why do they need that car? Is it because they don’t have transportation? Or, why are they shoplifting? Is it because they don’t have food at home?” said Brysky. “So, having those understandings is important for our unit.”
LaTreasure Dickson is in charge of the unit, and she said she’s thrilled its having such a positive impact already.
“We are making sure we have the opportunity to see them outside of what the system sees them as and also outside of what they see themselves as, when they were growing up, or who their influences are, or environmental factors, social factors,” said Dickson. “We’re making sure we have the opportunity to say, ‘Hey. You could be so much more!’”
