Leaders start long-planned violence intervention meetings with local teenagers

While sharing burritos for dinner at a new violence intervention effort, one local teenager asked Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack for help on a job application.

The teen was one of six who local leaders identified as at higher risk of engaging in violence. During the April 23 meeting, he asked Womack to weigh in on what salary range he should ask for in the application.

“‘You should probably go talk to the other employer, or the man who was speaking about the job opportunities he had,’” Womack remembered saying to the teen. 

The meeting was the first effort in a long-imagined local program to work directly with young men who are likely to be involved in shootings. 

The retiring police chief said the teen’s question to him is a sign the program is working as intended: helping young men avoid life-long or deadly consequences and make better decisions with support.

“If they’re even asking me … the engagement just exceeded my expectation,” he said.

By the end of the meeting, each of the six teens accepted the offer of help and support in choosing a different life path to avoid further violence.

Womack and others involved in the years-long effort to reduce violence citywide said the meeting and engagement from teens was a positive sign after initial delays in launching intervention work. 

The intervention is part of a larger Community Violence Reduction Initiative in Salem, an effort now led by community organizations. 

City officials first unveiled the initiative around two years ago after a stark increase in deadly violence in Salem, especially shootings that involved youth.

To address the issue, city officials brought in a consultant to advise leaders on solutions. One of the proposed solutions was to start meetings to intervene in young men at particularly high risk of being involved in violence.

The meetings, often called call-ins, are a “joint message from the criminal justice system … and the community,” Womack said. “To these young men at highest risk, ‘We care about you. We don’t want you shot, killed, injured, and we don’t want you in prison, locked up.’”

There will be another two this year, each with a new group of young men. The next is expected to be held in August, according to Womack.

They’re starting as city and county data are showing a recent decline in violent crime and fewer youth facing weapons-related charges.

In 2025, around 170 fewer people were victims of aggravated assault, a criminal charge that includes shootings, than in 2024, according to a report by the Salem Police Department.

Jim Seymour, director of Community Business and Education Leaders, and Julie Miller, a probation officer with the Marion County Juvenile Department, were among those who worked with Womack to plan the interventions.

The amount of excitement and engagement from the young men stood out to Miller, who often works with youth on probation who don’t engage with new people wanting to connect with them. 

“I was very surprised and very happy to see the success of their conversations and engagement with everybody at the table,” she said.

“I was hoping that a few would take us up on it, and they all have. They’re all saying ‘We believe you. We believe that you care about us,’” Seymour said. He also said he’s convinced the impacts of the meetings will be transformative for the lives of the six young men who attended.

Several employers, including Valor Mentoring, Ike Box and Green Acres Landscape, were at the meeting to talk with the teens, along with a dean from Chemeketa Community College who discussed education options. 

Maribel Hernandez, chair of the Highland Neighborhood family council, led the meeting alongside Womack, according to Seymour.

Teens were picked largely through a program at the Marion County Juvenile Department which works with gang-affiliated youth. Although the juvenile department is involved in the meetings and community initiative, not every teen at the meeting is on probation, according to Miller. 

“That’s another future goal of ours is to look outside of probation as well, and if there’s other needs in the community for youth, that we’re opening our view of youth that could be invited that may be struggling and just maybe not identified by our department,” Miller said.

Before the meeting took place, each teen filled out a survey that asked about their current needs and resources. That helped organizers better tailor the meeting to the young men, according to Miller. It asked about housing, school, substance use and other supports along with any challenges like financial or transportation needs.

The meetings are split into two parts.

Womack described the first half as a message of caring from the community, where local leaders and people affected by violence share their experiences. Other call-ins sometimes have mothers who’ve lost their sons to gun violence speak, or hospital workers who treat shooting victims, he said.

Law enforcement officials also speak about what consequences within the criminal justice system can be for people who continue engaging in violence.

The second half of the meeting is more casual, as teens can talk with people about job or education opportunities and share a meal with other people in attendance.

Seymour said he handed out his card to each of the men at the first meeting. Soon after, he got a text from one of their moms thanking him for the meeting and said her son was “so excited about this opportunity.”

“I texted back and I said, ‘As long as he’s looking for a job I won’t give up until he has one, if he doesn’t give up,’” Seymour said. Four of the men who attended have also texted Seymour for advice on reaching out to providers from the meeting. “There’s this excitement that has come from this that, like I say, it’s been so rewarding.”

He and others involved are eager to be an advocate for those who are open to receiving support. To Seymour, the meetings and community partnerships that are making them possible are a way to get more people looking out for young men in Salem.

Leaders hope that the meetings can expand next year to larger groups and a wider age bracket.

Miller credits Womack’s leadership throughout the violence reduction work of “putting the right people in the right room together finally” paired with his years of experience in law enforcement in California to make progress.

Womack, who is retiring as chief later this month, believes these meetings and community-led efforts will continue to grow after he leaves.

“I already know that this … strategy works. There’s evidence across the country that shows it works, and we just proved that as a community here in Salem, we can do this,” Womack said. “And now there’s a sound partnership in place that’s going to grow this even further, that’s incredibly exciting for me.”

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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